Missionary McConnachie dies in South Africa

from Blue Ridge Now

By Scott Parrott and Bill Moss
Times-News Staff Writers

Dr. Christopher McConnachie, an orthopedic surgeon who left a comfortable practice in Hendersonville to serve the poorest of the poor in South Africa, died last Tuesday in the region he served. He was 70.

McConnachie and his wife, Jenny, helped establish Hendersonville-based African Medical Mission, which helped bring much-needed medical care to people in a poverty-stricken region of South Africa.

"I just think that after being over there he somehow felt what we had was so great and what they had was so little that he felt he could make a difference," said Frank Byrd, who serves on the board of African Medical Mission. "He and Jenny were idealists in the best sense of the word. They wanted to make a difference and they truly have.

"Diagnosed with leukemia in early 2006, McConnachie was a compassionate fighter who worked throughout his illness. Chemotherapy for McConnachie's acute myeloid leukemia had compromised his immune system, and he was unable to fight off an infection.

He died on Nov. 27 in Mthatha, South Africa, where a funeral will be held Wednesday. A memorial to celebrate McConnachie's life will be held in Hendersonville next spring.

McConnachie lived in many places over the years, but he considered Africa home, friends and family say. He will be buried in the grounds of Bedford Hospital, where he worked 24 years.

Couple met in London

Born April 25, 1937, in Stirling, Scotland, McConnachie attended medical school at London's University College Hospital. He met Jennifer Farrow, a nurse, while both worked at hospitals in London. The couple married June 6, 1964.

The newlyweds moved to Redvers, Canada, for 18 months while Chris McConnachie worked as a general practitioner, Jenny McConnachie as a registered nurse. In 1969, they went to South Africa and worked at Saint Barnabas Mission Hospital. In that setting they first felt the call to serve in the Third World, family and friends said.

After a year, they moved to Winston-Salem so McConnachie could complete his orthopedic residency. They then moved to Hendersonville, where McConnachie founded Hendersonville Orthopedic Associates in 1973. In 1981, he helped start African Medical Mission to improve medical services and support in the Transkei region of South Africa. Two years later, Chris and Jenny McConnachie and their five children moved to Mthatha.

McConnachie performed orthopedic surgeries and treated conditions such as tuberculosis of the spine, polio, congenital defects and illnesses virtually unknown today in North America or Europe. He was the only board-certified orthopedist in the Transkei and sometimes performed as many as 10 surgeries in one day. He also visited outlying hospitals, regularly treating more than 150 outpatients in a week.

Supported by Hendersonville

Since the 1980s, the Hendersonville community and the couple's home church, St. James Episcopal, have supported the McConnachies' mission. The Walk for Africa raised more than $10,000 a year. Donations from other churches and grants also sustained the work.

"Dr. McConnachie spent maybe 10 or 12 years here in Hendersonville, but this community continued to support his work in South Africa, and I know that the generosity of this community helped him to do what he loved to do, which is the work he did in South Africa," said son-in-law Dan Kealy, a guidance counselor at Hendersonville High School.

Jenny McConnachie is expected to continue her work with the Itipini clinic and preschool, which provides health care, preschool and food "for the poorest of the poor," said Byrd, the AMM board member and St. James parishioner.

Maureen Linneman, an African Medical Mission board member, described McConnachie as "strong, determined, helpful, very self-giving, humorous, brilliant, and a wonderful practitioner.""He had a big heart," she said.

"He and his wife always had a real feeling for what they saw in Africa, a real compassion," Linneman said. "They talked about the huge need in the Third World, and they talked about how they just really felt a call to go there.

"McConnachie's work in South Africa went beyond mending broken bones.When the community had water problems, Linneman said, "Chris would see something like that and raise funds to build a water supply, a water tank. There was no way rural people could be X-rayed, so he developed a mobile X-ray van."

"He was the kind of person that when he saw a need, he would develop a way to serve the need," she said.

Episcopal missionaries

The McConnachies became missionaries of the Episcopal Church in 1987, serving in the Transkei, Diocese of Umtata, Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

"I have always regarded Chris McConnachie as a heroic figure," said Canon Margaret Larom, director of Anglican and Global Relations. "Calm, gentle, and wise, with that craggy face and marvelous smile, he had a humility that was disarming.

"McConnachie was the winner of the 2002 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Humanitarian Award. In 2006, he and Jenny were named "Officers of the Order of the British Empire" in recognition of their long and valuable service in Africa.

The nominations process included letters of recommendation, one of which came from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The couple traveled to England to accept the award from Prince Charles.

"Helen Keller once said, 'The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen or touched, they must be felt with the heart.' The life and ministry of Dr. Christopher McConnachie was a constant reflection of the love of God, which shone out through his work as a surgeon and his personality as a loving and caring child of God. He will be missed by all who had the privilege to meet him," said the Rev. David Copley, the Episcopal Church's mission personnel officer.

McConnachie is survived by his wife, seven children and 14 grandchildren.

Mary Brennan of Episcopal Life Online contributed to this report.

Feeling the squeeze: For many families, wages aren't keeping up with cost of living

from the Missoulian

By MURPHY WOODHOUSE of the Missoulian

Luke and Jennifer St. Claire arrived in Missoula in July of 2005, drawn cross-country from Rockville, Md., by the promise of open spaces.

They liked the city as soon as they pulled in and, feeling they had found a good place to raise their growing family, decided to call it home.

Luke, a North Dakota native, is a union bricklayer so wasn't worried about finding work to support his family.

“Usually, I can find work wherever there's bricklaying going on,” he said.

Union wages for bricklayers run from $22.50 to $24.50 in Montana, he said, considerably better than the $11.31 an hour considered a “living wage” in Missoula.

Luke, Jennifer and their 13-year-old daughter Sarah rented an apartment for the first year. But with the birth of their twin boys, Joshua and Matthew, in March 2006 and a new pregnancy shortly thereafter, the family realized they would need more space and privacy than the apartment could provide.

Feeling pressure to find a home quickly, the St. Claires got a subprime loan and moved into a modest home on the south side of Missoula.

A year and a half later, that mortgage, as well as rising food, fuel and utility costs, are squeezing the family and making ends harder and harder to meet.

According to Jennifer, their mortgage payments are slated to go up by $400 a month in February 2008 - to $1,800.

“We haven't a clue where that extra money is going to come from,” she said. “We're hoping to refinance or sell.”

With milk approaching $5 a gallon and gas not far behind, Jennifer found herself at the Missoula Food Bank for the first time several weeks ago - despite the fact that Luke's wage is nearly three times as high as the $8.64 an hour the average Missoula Food Bank client earns.

“We're just making enough to pay the bills,” she said. “Every dime is spoken for.”

Her husband's work takes him across the state and fuel costs add up quickly. He recently started sleeping in his van to save motel costs. He spent most of this past year working jobs outside of Missoula and away from his family.

“We miss him terribly,” Jennifer said.

“I have to ask myself every week, ‘Is it worth it?' ” Luke said.

And all the while, the costs of keeping the kids fed, clothed and warm add up and up.

“The basic staples just shouldn't be that expensive,” Jennifer said.

The St. Claires, along with thousands of other families in Montana, are facing one of the cold truths of the state's economy: As life gets more expensive, wages are not keeping pace.

According to the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations, a Seattle-based advocacy group, Montanans' cost of living went up 20.8 percent between 2002 and 2006, while wages increased by 11.2 percent.

The real picture is probably even bleaker. According to the Economic Policy Institute, most of the recent wage increases have gone to the nation's top earners.

The St. Claires are just one of the most recent additions to the growing ranks of “food insecure” families in Missoula and across the state.

According to a new report from the Montana Food Bank Network, between 1999 and 2006 the number of visits to the 189 distribution agencies in the network nearly doubled, from 363,537 visits to 708,073.

Those increases were paralleled here in Missoula.

In 2000, Missoula Food Bank was visited 27,446 times. By 2006, that figure was up to 41,375. The 12,519 individuals served by those visits represent roughly 12 percent of Missoula County's population.

Joseph Degele, who works as an $18-an-hour framer for Dam Construction, is the family's breadwinner, while his wife Kristina, who is taking online business courses from the University of Phoenix, stays at home and takes care of their two children, Alexis, 3, and Damian, 1.

According to the new Montana Food Bank Network report, the Degeles are like many food insecure families. After interviewing 301 clients at seven food banks across the state, the study found that roughly half of all food insecure households have one adult working - and nearly 60 percent have children.

Like Luke St. Claire, Joseph Degele pulls in a decent wage, but the family's basic needs speak for nearly all of it.

According to Joseph, rent for their apartment, the monthly truck payment, and insurance and gas for the truck are where the family feels the biggest squeeze.

After the necessities are met, the family must stretch the rest of each paycheck for their children's clothing, diapers and other “extras.”

“After we do all our bills, we end up with about $200 left over,” Joseph said. “It goes quick.”

“Tiny things just make it harder,” Kristina said. “They're outgrowing all of their clothes.”

Even when times are tight, the Degeles try to keep their visits to the food bank to a minimum - maybe once every three to four months.

“I don't like to do it because there are so many other people that need it,” Joseph said.

“I don't think we would go down there if it weren't for the kids,” Kristina said.

Unlike the St. Claires, but like many other food bank clients, Joseph and Kristina are without reliable health insurance.

According to the recent study, a majority of food bank visitors have some form of private or governmental coverage, but many are on their own when a family member gets ill or injured.

“It's hard,” Kristina said. “I get scared.”

The kids are covered by Medicaid and, while he's on the job, Joseph is covered by workers compensation, but even with that, an injury could spell disaster for the family.

“He's given me a couple scares,” Kristina said.

Among those were two poorly aimed nail-gun shots, one of which went through one of his hands.

Because of the family's history of poor to nonexistent health insurance, the Degeles are shouldering about $9,000 in debt, much of it medical. One of the biggest chunks is the nearly $3,000 they owe to Bozeman Deaconess Hospital for the birth of Alexis.

Medical debt is a hurdle for many food insecure families. According to the food bank study, about 64 percent of food bank clients have unpaid medical bills, and medical expenses are one of the most commonly cited barriers to food security.

With the little money left over at the end of each month, the Degeles chip away at their debt when they can.

“Money always goes faster than it comes,” Kristina said.

Brenda Pearce, a full-time dental assistant at Partnership Health Center, refuses to roll the dice for herself and her 11-year-old son Brandon by going without health insurance.

“I choose for my future,” she said.

It hasn't been an easy decision, however.

The price tag for that health insurance, as well as the life insurance, retirement plan and disability insurance she also refuses to go without, runs about $300 every two-week pay period, leaving her with roughly $750 in take-home pay.

Being insured has meant having to make cuts elsewhere in the family's budget, and often the food budget suffers.

“As soon as I get paid, I pay bills,” she said. “We're usually broke a couple days after payday.”

Many other food bank clients find themselves having to make similar tough calls. According to the recent statewide study, 38.9 percent of clients reported having to choose between food and rent, 38.2 percent between food and medicine, and 51.4 percent between food and utilities.

Because of a $50 wage garnishment that just started being taken from her paycheck for one of her several debts, Brenda had to choose between rent and utilities last month.

“Do I pay my bills or my rent?” she asked. “Which is more important?”

With the first day of winter just around the corner, times are going to get tighter for Brenda and Brandon.

In addition to the $600 monthly rent for their home, Brenda said heating bills can reach $250 on the coldest months - and are already well past $100.

“It goes right through the roof,” she said.

Because Brenda makes a decent wage, $13.40 an hour, she doesn't qualify for food stamps and other federal programs, even though she has to regularly turn to the food bank when ends don't meet.

“I don't qualify for assistance because they go off gross wages,” she said. “I'm just over the cutoff.”

Besides the family's daily and monthly expenses, Brenda has a number of debts hanging over her head, mostly payday loans, student loans and debts accrued during her past marriage.

“I'm paying creditors from over 20 years ago,” she said.

According to Brenda, one of those debts, a $350 veterinary bill she got after her greyhound was hit by a car, has ballooned to $900 with interest over two years. It is probably going to result in another wage garnishment soon.

It won't be easy, but Brenda is hoping to be debt-free by 2009 and stay that way for as long as possible.

“If I'm debt-free for six months, then I qualify for home loans,” she said. “I want to buy some land.”

While 47 percent of households served by Montana food banks have at least one adult working, the rest don't. More often than not, however, families aren't in that situation by choice.

According to the Montana Food Bank Network study, 26.7 percent of urban households without an employed adult have a member actively seeking employment. Nearly 56 percent don't, because of disability or poor health.

Alisa Watson is in the latter group.

On Oct. 10, 2002, Alisa was patrolling her Great Falls neighborhood as a Neighborhood Watch volunteer.

There had been a spate of random drive-by robberies in the area and Alisa saw the car in question on her patrol and started writing down the license plate number.

As she did so, the driver hit Alisa twice with the car, leaving her with two sprained ankles, two sprained knees, injured lower lumbar vertebrae and neck problems.

According to Alisa, her car insurance covered most of the medical bills and six months of physical therapy, but the accident, as well as the fibromyalgia discovered during her treatment, left her unable to keep the three jobs she had been working to support her two teenage children.

Then, shortly after the accident, her son was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

“This all hit right at once,” she said.

After the diagnosis, Alisa saw a silver lining in the accident.

“Well, God said I'd need to be home to take care of my son, so I got hit by that car,” she said.

With Alisa and her son unable to work, the family relied on food stamps, assisted housing, the Great Falls Community Food Bank and Alisa's $3,800 in savings. They scraped by for almost four years.

When times started to get tight, daughter Angela went to live with her father, making things a little easier for Alisa.

To be closer to Alisa's own father in Victor, Alisa and her son moved to Missoula in May of 2006. Shortly before leaving, her son started collecting about $700 a month in Social Security disability benefits.

For the past year and a half, those $700 and food stamps have been the family's only source of income. Monthly trips to the Missoula Food Bank have helped keep food on the table.

Working with Vocational Rehabilitation, Alisa recently found a part-time job with Western Mental Health that accommodated her health condition. The job fell through, however, after a kidney stone prevented Alisa from starting work.

Alisa is still looking for work with Vocational Rehabilitation, but for now she and her son are back to their tenuous square one.

“If anything comes up other than regular living expenses, we're screwed,” she said.

Aaron Brock, Missoula Food Bank's development director, said the food bank has adapted to the steady increase in demand in recent years.

“We only exist because the community has said that feeding the hungry is a priority,” he said. “As the needs have risen, so has the generosity of the community.”

While providing an important and reliable safety net for the food insecure, Brock stressed that the food bank does little to address the underlying causes of hunger.

“We're not solving the problem,” he said. “The problem is that they're not being paid enough and they don't have health insurance. That points to a greater problem than the one food banks were designed to solve.”

Gerald Smith, a researcher at the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations, said access to federal assistance programs, such as food stamps, is a key part of the solution to food insecurity in Montana and across the country.

“With most public programs, it's not only making them available, but making sure that people can access them,” he said.

In addition, Kate Bradford, the Montana Food Bank Network's public policy director, said changes in eligibility criteria would be an important step forward.

According to the report, food insecurity can be a problem for households all the way up to 185 percent of the poverty line, while food stamp eligibility ends at 130 percent of poverty.

“One of the things we'd love to see is food stamp eligibility go up to 185 percent,” she said.

While seeing federal food programs as a critical part of increasing food security, she emphasized that they are designed to supplement food budgets, not address the poverty that created the problem in the first place.

Bradford said the rising cost of living and stagnating wages are the most important barriers to food security, and until those problems are addressed Montana families, like the Degeles, Pearces, Watsons and St. Claires, are going to continue to have trouble making ends meet.

US presses Sudan, experts query peacekeeper plan

from Reuters South Africa

By Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council may need to meet within weeks to consider new sanctions against Sudan unless Khartoum quickly accepts a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, a top U.S. diplomat said on Monday.

But some experts at a conference on Darfur said the peacekeeping force could be a waste of money or even an "occupation" force, and they urged more effort to address extreme poverty as the cause of the Darfur crisis.

The Security Council decided unanimously in July to send peacekeepers to stem the violence in Darfur, a vast western province of Sudan where some 200,000 people have died in 4-1/2 years of fighting.

But now Sudan was throwing up obstacles and failing to meet its commitments, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said.

"The Security Council's credibility is on the line," he told the conference at New York's Columbia University.

"If there's no cooperation, the Security Council will need to reconvene to discuss the issue of what to do to bring about compliance," he said, criticizing Sudan for "foot-dragging."

Khalilzad said the world should be "unrelenting" in pressing Sudan, which has agreed in principle to the force of 26,000 troops.

"If the Sudanese government fails to meet its obligations, (the Security Council) should be willing to respond by increasing pressure and consider imposing sanctions," he said.

Asked after his speech when he thought the 15-member council, which includes Sudan's close ally China, should reconvene to take such action, Khalilzad said "within weeks."

He said that meant before the end of the year, when the UN-AU force is due to take over command from an existing AU force that has been hampered by lack of funds and equipment.

TRADING BLAME

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno said last week problems raised by Sudan include objections to some non-African units, failure to provide land, curbs on helicopter flights and a quest for a highly restrictive status of forces pact.

Sudan blamed the United Nations for delays in deploying the force. Khartoum's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, told Reuters on Monday he had not seen Khalilzad's remarks but if they were as reported, "he is missing the whole story. The language of threats will never work with Sudan."

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia's Earth Institute dedicated to achieving sustainable development, said the focus on peacekeepers was misplaced because the crisis was fundamentally a development problem, not a political one.

He said the crisis stemmed from the desperation of poor people in a huge, arid, underdeveloped region.

"You could put the peacekeepers in there, they won't change one iota on the ground in terms of the grim realities of the harshness of life in Darfur," Sachs said, pointing to the need for clinics, schools, electricity and water holes.

"I'm not against the peacekeepers, I just find them a waste of money," he said. "Unless the rich world is going to promise $2.6 billion for the peacekeepers each year, plus $2.6 billion for development, I'd say keep your peacekeepers."

Several countries have raised concerns over the cost of the force, which is much higher than any other U.N. peacekeeping mission. A U.N. official said the annual budget was around $1.5 billion, with about $1 billion more in one-off start-up costs.

Professor Mahmood Mamdani, an expert on post-colonial Africa at Columbia, said the peacekeepers could do little without a peace to keep, yet U.N.-backed talks launched in Libya in October had achieved little.

Poverty and exclusion blight Roma

from the BBC

By Oana Lungescu
BBC European affairs correspondent, Avrig, Romania

The European Commission is set for an unprecedented meeting with Roma (Gypsy) people from all over Europe.

It is a response to the challenge posed by what has become the biggest ethnic minority in the enlarged European Union.

Europe's roughly 10 million Roma remain the poorest of the poor, often migrating abroad in search of work.

The recent murder of an Italian woman sparked off a wave of hostility against the Roma and dozens of expulsions from Italy.

The main suspect is Nicolae Romulus Mailat, a migrant from Avrig, in central Romania.

Crowded shack

His younger brother Gheorghe showed me the family home - a tiny one-room wooden shack, where four people cook, eat and sleep in two beds propped up with bricks. Most of the light comes from the television.

"Bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, it's all here," Gheorghe explains. "We went to Italy to get enough money to build at least another room."

A tall 16-year-old who rarely smiles, Gheorghe has never been to school.

Several other brothers, he tells me, are in mental institutions or foster care, and one drowned while crossing a river on horseback.

Eight months ago, they sold the horse to pay for the bus tickets to Italy.

"It was better in Italy, it was easier to get by," says Gheorghe.

In Romania, he earns less than $10 (£4.90) a day picking corn or potatoes. In Italy he worked on building sites for $60 (£29) or more.

His mother used to collect scrap metal or beg.

After Nicolae's arrest, the family fled Italy.

But when they tried to return several weeks later, the Italian border police would not let them back in.

Italy setback

"They told us we were up to no good and we should stay in our country," Gheorghe complains.

The Mailat family home, if you can call it that, is at the edge of an illegal Roma settlement in Avrig, at the end of a dirt track where the mud comes up to your ankles and dogs gather in packs to keep visitors away.

The mayor, Gheorghe Fraticiu, says there are plans to install electricity and running water.

But until then, people carry water in buckets from the nearby stream, which is overflowing with rubbish.

These miserable living conditions have driven most of Avrig's 800 Roma abroad.

Ilie Linguraru, an elderly man with a bushy moustache, can barely earn a living by making traditional wicker brooms and baskets.

He and his wife had plans to travel to Italy, but now - like everybody around here - he is too scared to go.

One man, he says, has shamed all of Romania.

But not everyone is complaining.

Next door, Viorel Floca and three of his sons have slaughtered a pig in the middle of the road and are busy scrubbing it clean with hot water and a plastic brush, eagerly watched by several grandchildren - some barefoot despite the cold.

They may not look it, but these Roma are not poor.

Here to stay

The men work as shepherds, own quite a few horses and pigs, and Mr Floca would not even consider emigrating.

"I'm not leaving my country," he says proudly.

"Who wants to work, should work here in Romania. Why should I go abroad to steal or pull faces to beg? God has given me strength and health, so I'm staying here in Romania."

Only a short drive away from Avrig's gypsy shantytown is Sibiu, this year's European capital of culture and a thriving city.

As in the whole of Romania, alarm bells are ringing about a growing labour shortage.

One local factory has even hired about 100 metal workers from India.

Some 35-40% of Roma children don't have access to school
Magda Matache
Roma rights spokeswoman

Some employers argue that the Roma are either lazy or lack the right skills, while the Roma claim they are being discriminated against.

What is clear is that despite millions of dollars from the EU and a government integration strategy, change is slow to come.

Magda Matache, executive director for Romani Criss, a Roma human rights group, says at least 40% of the Roma population is unemployed.

"Although a lot of improvements have been made in the education system, the level of illiteracy in the Roma community is still high and 35-40% of Roma children don't have access to school," Ms Matache explains.

"Roma families will not send their children to school because they don't see the importance of it, as after they finish school they won't get a job, they won't get equal treatment."

Romani Criss has started a television campaign to change perceptions.

Now that Romania is in the EU, the advertisements say, the Roma should not remain on the margins.

But even the most optimistic think it will take a generation or more until people like Gheorghe Mailat can feel at home in their own country and the rest of Europe.

More Macomb kids in poverty

from The Macomb Daily

Access to prenatal care also decreases; middle class losing ground
By Maryanne Kocis MacLeod
Macomb Daily Staff Writer

More than one in 10 children in Macomb County, or 10.7 percent, lives in poverty, up 45 percent from 2000, according to a report released today by Kids Count in Michigan. Macomb ranked sixth-best of Michigan's 83 counties.

Statewide, 18 percent of children live below the poverty rate, matching the national average, and placing Michigan at 27th overall. Nationally, 439,000 children lived in poverty as of 2004, compared to 354,000 in 2000.

"Child poverty is a tremendous concern in both Macomb County and the state, said Jane Zehnder-Merrell, a spokeswoman for the Michigan League for Human Services. "We've seen a huge erosion of economic stability; a lot more families are living on the margin."

Frank Taylor, director of the Macomb County Community Services Agency, was not surprised by the news.

"These results are pretty reflective of findings we released in November," Taylor said. "We have many more demands for services as a result. What we're seeing is a new group of individuals, previously considered middle class, falling into the poverty cycle."

With increasing unemployment and foreclosure rates, those numbers will continue to rise, said Angelo Nicholas, director of the Macomb County Department of Human Services.

"Many areas in Macomb are doing very well," Nicholas said. "Others are getting older and poorer. We've seen a parallel increase in the number of children coming into foster care. This often coincides with bad economic times, more allegations of abuse and neglect, more investigations ûour caseload jumps way up."

In neighboring Oakland County, Kids Count found that the child poverty rate zoomed up 42 percent from 7.1 to 10.1. While the percentage increase in Wayne was significantly lower û only 24 percent, a whopping 26.3 percent of children there live in poverty.

Kids Count of Michigan a service of the Michigan League of Human Services in collaboration with the federal government, monitors trends in child well-being using economic, health and educational factors.

One specific area Macomb needs to take a hard look at is access to pre-natal care, Zehnder-Merrell stressed. According to the report, one in five babies born in the county does not receive adequate pre-natal care, placing Macomb 37th of 83 counties; this statistic is further reflected in increased instances of low-birth rate and increased child-death rate.

"Access to prenatal care is the first step in ensuring that a child is properly cared for, for life," Zehnder-Merrell said. "This is an area Macomb County needs to take a serious look at and address."

A few pieces of good news: The number of local fourth-graders who achieved passing math scores on the MEAP test improved significantly. In 2000, 29.8 failed the math portion of the test; by 2006-2007 only13.8 failed, a 54 percent improvement, which mirrors the state trend. A 33 percent increase was recorded in eighth-grade math performance.

"Macomb has seen a big improvement in this area," Zehnder-Merrell, said.

Another positive: the teen pregnancy rate continues to drop. In 2000, 594 births to teen mothers were reported, or 25.3 per 1000 births; that number dropped to 504 in 2005, 20.3 per 1,000 births. Although statewide the teen birth rate is on the decline; Michigan's rate per 1,000 is significantly higher at 33.6 per 1,000 births.

Additional key findings: Although the study did not directly assess access to health care, one key indicator -- the rate of children hospitalized for asthma - jumped 41 percent in Macomb County, from 25 per 100,000 to 35 per 100,000.

"Hospitalization for asthma is something we should be able to manage with proper health care," said Tom Kalkofen, director of the Macomb County Health Department. "The good thing about such studies is they help determine where to put local resources; They help us figure out what problems we're going to address û or try to address û as state and federal dollars continue to shrink."

Oakland County did not experience a dramatic increase but its rate of hospitalization is similar to Macomb's, 35 per 10,000, for a 1 percent increase since 2000.

Macomb and Oakland, however, are doing significantly better than Wayne County where the rate jumped from 73 per 10,000 to 84 per 10,000; and Michigan where hospitalizations increased from 43 to 49 per 10,000.

Rising Food Prices 'Threaten World's Poor"

from One World

Rising Food Prices Threaten World's Poor People
New report examines the impact of growth, climate change, and biofuels

Beijing -Income growth, climate change, high energy prices, globalization, and urbanization are all converging to transform food production, markets, and consumption, according to a new report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). As a result, global food demand and prices are likely to rise, threatening the livelihoods and nutrition of poor people in developing countries. The report, "The World Food Situation: New Driving Forces and Required Actions," was released today at the annual general meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

"Food prices have been steadily decreasing since the Green Revolution, but the days of falling food prices may be over," said Joachim von Braun, lead author of the report and director general of IFPRI. "Surging demand for feed, food, and fuel have recently led to drastic price increases, which are not likely to fall in the foreseeable future, due to low stocks and slow-growing supplies of agricultural outputs. Climate change will also have a negative impact on food production, compounding the challenge of meeting global food demand, and potentially exacerbating hunger and malnutrition among the world's poorest people."

"Economic growth has helped to reduce hunger, particularly when it is equitable," added von Braun. "But unfortunately, growth does not always reach the poorest people."

Consumer Demand
Many regions of the developing world, especially China and India, have seen high economic growth in recent years. Together with an expanding urban population, income growth is altering spending and consumer preferences. Global food demand is shifting from grains and other staple crops to processed food and high-value agricultural products, such as vegetables, fruits, meat, and dairy.
Although many smallholder farmers would like to take advantage of new income-generating opportunities presented by high-value products, there are serious barriers to entering this market, including the capacity to address safety and quality standards and produce large quantities for food processors and retailers.

Bioenergy
In response to rising oil costs, the production of biofuels as an alternative source of energy is also contributing to dramatic changes in the world food situation. According to the report, increased production of bioenergy will adversely affect poor people in developing countries by increasing both the price and price volatility of food. Subsidies for biofuels, which are common, exacerbate the negative impact on poor households, as they implicitly act as a tax on basic food.

Using state-of-the-art computer modeling, IFPRI has projected the possible price effects of biofuels for two potential scenarios up to the year 2020:

* Under scenario one, which is based on the actual biofuel investment plans of many countries and the assumption that high-potential countries will expand their production of bioenergy, maize prices would increase by 26 percent and oilseed prices would rise by 18 percent.

* Under scenario two, which assumes that the production of biofuels would expand greatly, to twice the level of scenario one, maize prices would increase by 72 percent and oilseeds by 44 percent.

In both scenarios, rises in crop prices would lead to decreases in food availability and calorie consumption in all regions of the world, with Sub-Saharan Africa suffering the most. As biofuels become increasingly profitable, more land, water, and capital will be diverted to their production, and the world will face more trade-offs between food and fuel.

Agricultural Trade
In addition to biofuels, IFPRI also modeled the impact of supply and demand changes on prices and projects that up to 2015, cereal prices could further increase by 10 to 20 percent, benefiting certain countries and population groups while ill-affecting others. China and almost all African countries, which are net importers of cereals, would suffer from the resulting high prices, but India, a net exporter would benefit. Overall, the majority of poor people, who live in households that are net buyers of food, will be worse off and increased food prices will make it even more difficult for them to eat healthy, well-balanced diets

A more open global trade in agriculture, however, would generally benefit developing countries. IFPRI research shows that opening up and facilitating market access between industrialized and developing countries would bring significant economic gains, although poverty would not be significantly reduced except in certain contexts.

Climate Change
World agricultural output is projected to decrease significantly due to global warming, and the impact on developing countries will be much more severe than on industrialized nations. Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change because of its high proportion of low-input, rainfed agriculture, compared with Asia or Latin America. Exposure to rainfall variability also extends to livestock, which mostly depend on range and grasslands that are affected by environmental shocks, such as climate change. To address these risks, investments to improve agricultural productivity need to increase and innovative insurance mechanisms should be explored to compensate rural communities and smallholder farmers when rains fail.

Policy Recommendations
Given the various risks and challenges posed by the rapidly changing world food situation, current market trends and government policies could exacerbate hunger and poverty, especially for the world's poorest people. Policymakers thus must take explicit measures to mitigate the negatives effects on poor households. While tackling long-term challenges is vital, the report recommends that policymakers also take immediate action:

1. Developed countries should facilitate flexible responses to drastic changes in food prices by eliminating trade barriers and programs that set aside agriculture resources. A world facing increased food scarcity needs to trade more, not less.

2. Developing countries should increase investment in rural infrastructure and market institutions to improve access to critical agricultural inputs, including fertilizers, seeds, and credit, which are key to enhancing productivity.

3. To counteract rising food prices, national and international research systems, including the CGIAR, should be positioned to invest more heavily in agricultural science and technology to increase agricultural production on a global level.

4. Policymakers should enact social protection measures that focus on early childhood nutrition to mitigate risks associated with reduced food access, particularly for the poorest households.

5. Because poor people in developing countries are especially vulnerable to the risks associated with climate change, particularly as it relates to food security, policymakers should take agriculture and food issues into account when developing national and international climate change agendas.

"As the world food situation is being rapidly defined by new driving forces, including income growth, climate change, and increased production of biofuels, the global community must give renewed attention to the role of agriculture, nutrition, and health in development policy," said von Braun. "Above all, policies must target the world's most poor and hungry people, to ensure that they do not get left behind in the wake of overall economic growth and global progress."

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The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI is one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, an alliance of 64 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations. Please visit our website at www.ifpri.org.

Addressing the employment-poverty nexus in Kenya: comparing cash-transfer and job-creation programmes

from Eldis

Employment and poverty reduction in Kenya

Authors: E. Zepeda
Publisher: UNDP International Poverty Centre , 2007
Full text of document

What is the link between employment and poverty reduction in Kenya? This paper examines unemployment, underemployment, employment and labour earnings, and the relationship of all these with poverty.

Based on an analysis of a Labour Force Survey, the author finds that:

* the single two most important factors decreasing the probability of being poor are having higher education and having access to a paid job in the modern sectors
* unemployment is high in and heavily affects urban areas, particularly young workers and mature educated workers
* underemployment is the main problem in rural areas, and it disproportionately affects women

* employment is dominated by traditional farming and pastoralists activities in rural areas and by informal activities in urban areas
* productive jobs are limited to wage employment, mostly in the modern public and private sectors concentrated in urban areas

The paper contends that poor workers need short-term social protection and all workers need a long-term employment-focused development strategy. Two programmes designed to provide income support to poor households are simulated; a child-transfer and a job-creation programme.

Results indicate that:

* child-transfer programmes perform better in rural areas, where dependency ratios are higher
* the job-creation programme markedly reduces poverty in urban areas, particularly among the extremely poor
* both programmes improve the incomes of the poor and result in significant reductions in the depth of poverty

Two govt hospitals to provide IInd line HIV treatment free to patients below poverty line

from Pharma Biz

Sandeep Dubey, New Delhi

The government will be offering free second line treatment drugs to those HIV patients who are below the poverty line at two hospitals in the country. The Hospitals are Tambararan Hospital in Chennai and JJ Hospital in Mumbai. The information was given by Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr A Ramadoss at a programme on The World AIDS day here in New Delhi.

According to Dr Ramadoss there are an estimated 25 lakh people living with HIV in India and a majority of them are below the poverty line. They could not afford IInd line medicines because of the high price of these medicines. Both the centres would ease the problem of HIV affected poor people as the centres would provide the requisite IInd line medicine on no cost to them, said the Minister.

The minister, emphasizing the government's commitment towards people, living with HIV, said, "Our commitment to reach one lakh persons on anti-retroviral therapy has been achieved. We are now getting ready to provide second-line treatment to those who have may have developed resistance to first-line drugs." He disclosed that as the authority gains confidence in providing good quality care, access to second line treatment would be expanded.

Speaking at the programme, Dr.Ramadoss appreciated the work done by The National AIDS Control Organization which had undertaken specific actions to control and reverse the epidemic and its efforts had yielded significant results as was evident by declining HIV prevalence rates.

‘India will not trade farmers’ interests for Doha deal’

from The Daily Times

NEW DELHI: India will not sacrifice the interests of its millions of subsistence farmers to clinch a deal in global trade talks, the country’s trade minister warned.

Trade Minister Kamal Nath’s strong stand came after the head of the World Trade Organisation Pascal Lamy declared late last week he hoped to finally secure an agreement in the Doha round of international trade negotiations by the end of 2008 — four years later than initially scheduled.

While admitting that the United States, a key player in the talks, has “sensitivities” in agriculture, Nath said, “We in India also have sensitivities of 650 million subsistence farmers” and will safeguard their interests at all cost.

“We cannot have a subsidised market access which destabilises our farmers,” Nath told 750 delegates of the India Economic Summit organised by the World Economic Forum in the Indian capital late on Sunday.

“We cannot negotiate subsistence” in the Doha development round — billed as a once-in-a-generation chance to raise the standard of living of millions of poor people.

“We have already told the United States that if they commit on lowering their (agricultural) subsidies by just one dollar ... the deal is acceptable to us,” he said. “But I have not got any response so far,” said Nath, a vociferous critic of what he says are efforts by the United States and other developed countries to perpetuate distortions in the trade talks.

The United States says it has made concessions on its trade-distorting farm subsidies and that tougher demands could torpedo a deal but developing nations say the US moves are not enough.

Developing and emerging nations are seeking cuts in farm subsidies and on import tariffs for farm produce, particularly by the United States, while rich countries want more access to markets in poorer economies for industrial goods.

Agriculture comprises around eight percent of total global exports but it is crucial to unblocking the Doha round aimed at boosting the world economy and allowing poor countries to use trade as an exit from poverty.

India also needs a deal that will ensure its “small and infant industries” do not have to face competition from cheap goods in industrialised countries.

A rule-based multilateral trading system is as key to India as it is to the United States and the European Union and in fact, “we need it more than any other stronger player,” Nath said.

“A multilateral rule-based system is here to stay. Bilateral agreements are only building blocks and they can not replace the multilateral system.”

Nath said he was “optimistic we will conclude” a new global pact but set no timeframe. However, he said trade distortions must be resolved as the round was not about perpetuating an uneven playing field.

India had unilaterally reduced its tariffs substantially over the last few years to “10 percent and lower” but developed nations want India to make cuts above what it has already made, he added.

The 151 WTO members have been deadlocked since the Doha Development Round was first launched in 2001.

After Katrina: The house that Brad built

from the Independent

Failed by their government, forgotten by the insurance industry, the people of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward finally have a hero to help rebuild their shattered lives
By Andrew Gumbel

A couple of weeks ago, residents of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward – an overwhelmingly poor, African American area of the city hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina – flocked by the hundred to a locally staged production of Waiting for Godot.

Samuel Beckett's play was the perfect metaphor for a community that has done nothing but wait in vain – for politicians, for insurance companies, for home-rebuilding loans, for anything other than the weeds that have spread with abandon over the sites of former homes swept away in the floodwaters.

Yesterday, though, Godot came at last.

Granted, it wasn't Godot exactly. It was the Hollywood megastar Brad Pitt, whose motives and commitment have come in for some understandable close scrutiny. But Pitt is doing something no government agency has yet managed to achieve, more than two years after the worst natural disaster in US history: he is rebuilding homes in the Lower 9th and giving residents – many of them scattered around Louisiana and beyond – some tentative cause for hope in the future.

A foundation set up by Pitt, specifically targeted at New Orleans and called Make It Right, has commissioned designs for an initial 150 practical, low-cost houses from 13 of the world's more prominent architectural firms and plans to break ground on the first of them by early spring. The houses will have many flood-protection features – everything from foundations that can float to roof patios for relief from the next big storm – as well as state-of-the-art recycling and energy-generating installations to cut running costs and act as a potential model for future low-cost housing schemes.

These plans have been in the works for a couple of months, but yesterday the showman in Pitt made his first big splash. He accompanied reporters on a tour of a wondrous art installation set up by Make It Right around the neighbourhood: a collection of bright pink tent houses, boxes and blocks dotted at seemingly random intervals. The idea is to encourage big-dollar donors to sponsor the symbolic pink houses for $150,000 (£72,000) each – the estimated cost of each of the new real houses. Ordinary individuals can pitch in too – sponsoring just one item like a low-flush toilet or a solar panel.

The exhibition, which also features 1,000 lightbulbs to symbolise the approximate number people who died in Katrina's aftermath, will run for the next five weeks, the height of the holiday charitable giving season. Once it is over, the tents will be cut up and the pink fabric reused to make bags and T-shirts and other merchandise that will then be sold to raise even more money.

Pitt explained that the seemingly random placement of the houses around the gaping open spaces of the Lower 9th represented the capriciousness with which the floodwaters uprooted foundations, dislocated roofs and washed out street after street. "Right now, there are scattered blocks, like they were scattered by fate's hand, symbolic of the aftermath of the storm," Pitt told New Orleans' Times-Picayune newspaper. But the placement does in fact have a special significance, which will become clear at night when the pink houses will be fully illuminated and visitors will be encouraged to take drive-by tours. They have been laid out to mirror the position of the stars in the night sky on 29 August 2005, the day Katrina hit.

That notion may sound like touchy-feely Hollywood cosmic nonsense, but the neighbourhood has already seen enough of Pitt to know he is deadly serious. At an early community meeting, a resident begged him to "make it right" – and to underline his intention to do that he used the phrase to name his foundation.

The residents also said they wanted to be fully involved in the development of the homes, so Pitt organised regular meetings at which they could comment on the evolving architectural plans. They asked for back-up electricity sources to bolster solar roof panels, and they got them. They asked for wheelchair ramps up to the upper storeys, and they got them, too.

It's still early days, but for now Pitt's reviews have been remarkably positive. Vanessa Gueringer, a community housing organiser, said she couldn't believe someone like Pitt was genuinely interested in helping a battle-scarred neighbourhood such as the Lower 9th. "You're used to being stepped on. You're used to being misused. So, at first, you are a little leery," she told the Times-Picayune.

She is very close to being won

over. "I'm 80 per cent there," she said. "I guess I'll be completely sold when I see the first house on a lot over there. But they have done everything they could to make us understand that they want to see us see our neighbourhood come back."

New Orleans is a city where wealth and social status are determined almost entirely by sea level. The best, most colourful, most heavily frequented neighbourhoods such as the French Quarter and the Garden District were high enough to escape all but superficial damage in the flooding that followed Katrina. The Lower 9th, by contrast, is at the lowest point of the giant wash basin that New Orleans became in 2005.

Flooding was always a problem. It was inundated when Hurricane Betsy struck in 1965, leading to the biggest exodus of population until Katrina. It wasn't the hurricane that did the worst damage two years ago, but rather the flooding caused by breaches in the levee system designed to protect the city which many experts had been denouncing as inadequate for years.

The Lower 9th filled with fetid water from at least three separate sources. A neighbourhood that had long been a byword for inner-city problems – poor schools and health services, poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, drugs and crime – was all but wiped off the map.

Several people, including New Orleans' Mayor, Ray Nagin, have wondered aloud if the Lower 9th should be rebuilt at all. Some have suggested converting the entire area into parkland. Those uprooted by Katrina from the neighbourhood – a surprising 60 per cent of them owners of their own destroyed homes – have always vehemently disagreed.

That's where Pitt came in. The 43-year-old actor first came to New Orleans in 1994 to shoot Neil Jordan's Interview With The Vampire, based on a best-seller by the local gothic horror author Anne Rice. At the beginning of this year, he found himself back to shoot The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, due for release next year, and loved the place so much that he and his partner, Angelina Jolie, decided to buy a house in the French Quarter.

The couple are, of course, noted philanthropists, largely thanks to Jolie's advocacy work on behalf of children and other causes. Pitt has always been fascinated by architecture, which is why he chose to devote his energies to a socially conscious construction project.

He unveiled his plans for Make It Right in September at a meeting in New York of Bill Clinton's Global Initiative. He pledged $5m of his own money, as did Steve Bing, the film producer, and secured the services of several architectural firms enthused by the idea of showcasing good design for the sorts of people who usually have no access to it.

His key partners have been an environmental design expert called William McDonough, a Los Angeles-based architecture firm called Graft, and a North Carolina investment company called Cherokee which specialises in sustainable development. The designs are based on classic New Orleans architecture – the shotgun, the creole, and the camelback cottage styles.

Everything about the project is profoundly political. Hurricane Katrina, for Pitt, "illuminated the brutal truth that there's a portion of our society that we're not looking after, that we are marginalising. And that shouldn't be." In his vision, the new home-dwellers will no longer be getting "the crap materials that give your kids asthma, increase your health bills. They're not getting the cheap appliances that are going to run up your bills and keep that burden on you. It's a respectful way to treat people."

For the moment, eight families have been chosen to occupy the first houses to be completed. Some people have expressed concern that the houses could be a target for criminals – a concern that is very hard to measure with certainty until the houses are completed, although Pitt and his associates have been open to suggestions from residents and the local police on security measures and placement of windows and other features.

Pitt, naturally, has been accentuating the positive. "I am telling you, there are going to be families returning into homes, they'll be spending Christmas here next year," he said. "They won't have to spend another Christmas away from home."

Poverty a higher risk for minority immigrants

from the Windsor Star

Grace Macaluso
The Windsor Star

Immigrants of colour face a higher risk of living in poverty than their white counterparts, say organizers of an anti-poverty campaign.

Ontario's growing number of visible minorities face a disproportionate, ongoing and increasing risk of being poor, Avvy Go, spokeswomen for the Colour of Poverty Campaign, said Monday.

"If you're a person of colour living in Toronto, you are two to three times more likely to live in poverty," Go told members of The Star's editorial board.

Go quoted statistics from a Toronto study showing that unlike previous generations of immigrants -- primarily those from western European countries -- more recent newcomers of colour are not catching up economically to Canadian-born residents.

While there are no similar statistics for Windsor, Sungee John, board member of Windsor Women Working With Immigrant Women, said the Toronto experience applies to newcomers to this city, which is one of the most culturally diverse communities in Canada.

"We know that the new reality for immigrants, especially immigrants coming in with professional qualifications, is not the rosy picture that was here 10, 15 years ago," said John. "It's much more of a struggle in Windsor; with the economic outlook not improving it's even more difficult for immigrants in this community."

Go noted that 80 per cent of new immigrants hail from Africa, India and China. "Yet, recent immigrants from Europe are still doing better."

As part of a province-wide tour, members of the Colour of Poverty campaign held a work shop at the University of Windsor. Participants were asked to come up with strategies aimed at raising public awareness as well as strategies for government action.

Shelley Gilbert, spokeswomen for Legal Assistance of Windsor, said the ailing economy is making it even tougher for newcomers.

"What we're seeing now is that people are becoming more desperate, as a result of layoffs in our community, as a result of systemic issues -- lack of affordable housing in our community and cutbacks in social assistance," said Gilbert. "As a result people are becoming more in need than they ever were."

Go called the recent pledges by the Ontario government to raise the minimum wage to $10.25 over the next three years and expand government-paid dental care to more working poor families as "good first steps."

"With the Throne Speech there seems to be some commitment from the provincial government to look at this issue."

Facts:

. Visible minorities -- other than aboriginals -- make up more than 13 per cent of Canada's population and 20 per cent of Ontario's. This will rise to 20 per cent of Canada's population and to 29 per cent of Ontario's by 2017.

. Visible minority children constitute 67 per cent of all children in low income households.

. 32 per cent of visible minority children and 47 per cent of children in recent immigrant families in Ontario live in poverty.

. Between 1980 and 2000 in Toronto, while the poverty rate for the white population fell by 28 per cent, the poverty among visible minority families rose by 361 per cent.

NGO pressure for loan installments a cruel joke with Sidr victims

from The New Nation

Cyclone Sidr victims who lost almost everything to the disaster that befell them are now facing pressure from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for repayment of micro-credit repayment installments. The pressure is so intense that some of the credit recipients are selling out the relief materials they have received from different sources to meet the demands, or are hiding themselves from NGO supervisors to escape harassment.

Such a pressure for loan recovery by the NGOs including the large ones like BRAC, ASA and even the semi-government Grameen Bank has shocked the conscious section of the people. How those families which have lost almost everything to the cyclone and are just maintaining their existence in extreme hardships can be expected to repay their loan installments now?

According to reports reaching Dhaka from the cyclone-battered districts of Barguna, Patuakhali and Bagerhat, NGO field workers are busy fulfilling their obligations to their respective organisations with a view to remaining in jobs and earning promotions. Are then, their micro-credit activities all about disbursement and realisation of loans, regardless of concern about the conditions of their clients who actually keep them in the job?

Do the NGOs then view micro-credit as an end in itself, just to show loan disbursement and realisation efficiency with cumulative interest rates of as high as 22 per cent a year, not improvement of the conditions of the poor not covered by the conventional banking system?

Critics say that it is precisely because of such a faulty approach that the NGO activities in most cases have led to creation of luxurious jobs for their organisers and executives, and hardly helped the eradication of poverty. Recipients of micro-credit have remained in the cycle of poverty and would continue to remain there till such approaches are not changed.

Asking for loan installments at this hour of tragedy can only be termed a cruel joke. Bangladesh has been termed the most important hearth on the globe for NGOs. Some estimates place the number of NGOs in Bangladesh in excess of 20,000. There are many types of NGOs in the country, but most, by their own declaration, focus on development or poverty alleviation. Bangladesh is often seen as the birthplace of the microcredit, fostered by the Grameen Bank.

According to official statistics, out of more than 1500 NGOs registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau, about 800 are mentioned by NGO apex bodies, and more than 120 of those are foreign NGOs. There are at least 16 foreign NGOs which are extensions of some donor governments and operate with allocations from their respective governments.

Shafiqul Huq Chowdhury, President, Association for Social Advancement (ASA) has said to the news media that his NGOs had decided to write off micro-credit of 50,000 worst affected micro-credit recipients. A former adviser of the caretaker government, he said field workers who would be found not complying with the decision would be punished. Field workers of his NGO, however, said that they came to know about such announcements through the news media, but were yet to get anything in black and white.

A senior BRAC official has said that the micro-credit activities in the cyclone-affected areas have been suspended, but he could not say for how long. Clearly, this shows the growth of bureaucracy within the NGOs which are supposed to have operational dynamism and efficiency in its absence. Some NGO workers told the news media that they were under pressure to complete the accounts for the year ending this month. Thus realisation of micro-credit is very important on their agenda.

It is often asserted that Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries, is the home to the largest NGOs of the world. Some big NGOs have assets like empires. Their executives lead most luxurious lives, living in the posh areas of the metropolis and using the latest model cars. Their salary and emoluments can be compared only with those working in international organisations.

Their failure to rise to the occasion surely makes a case for a thorough inquiry into their activities by a task force of the government with a view to ascertaining how far they have been transparent, accountable and helpful to the poor.

There are many allegations about the ways micro-credit programmes are being run. Many believe that micro-credit system of the NGOs is much more helpful for making others rich while poor people remain in the debt trap.

Oxfam Says Deal Signed Under Pressure

from All Africa

The East African (Nairobi)

By Paul Redfern

The UK aid agency Oxfam is insisting that last week's interim trade deal between the East African Community and the European Union was a result of undue arm-twisting of African ministers behind the scenes.

Although the allegations have been denied by East African trade ministers, Oxfam says the December 31 deadline imposed for a deal to be signed, forced ministers' hands.

"Developing nations have been placed under enormous pressure to sign," said Luis Morago, head of Oxfam International's European Union office. "Despite concerns raised by many including the IMF, the Commission has ignored possible alternatives and insisted on the deadline.

"They have essentially forced the East Africans to choose between guaranteeing markets for their agricultural products today and maintaining a degree of protection to promote future industrial growth - which all developed countries have done in the past.

"This agreement will oblige the East African region to remove 80 per cent of its tariffs on EU goods over 15 years, possibly more quickly, which could lead to unemployment and loss of vital government revenue that might otherwise be spent on health and education."

The European Union itself, however, issued a press release saying, both sides "welcomed the progress made in their discussions," which took place in Brussels last week.

The EU said that with the first phase of discussions now complete, a full Economic Partnership Agreement should be should be signed next year.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who has come under pressure himself to ensure that East African states were not forced to sign up to agreements which would do long-term harm to their economies, insisted that the deal was good news for the countries of the East African community.

"It will prevent trade disruption and allow the EU to open its markets fully to East African Community exports from January 1, 2008."

The interim deal only involves trade in goods, market access, development co-operation and fisheries.

It will however ensure that vital horticultural exports, including flowers, fresh fruit produce and vegetables can continue to enjoy duty-free access to EU markets from next year.

However, it does force the EAC to gradually open up its markets over the next two decades and 80 per cent of exports from the EU are expected to enter East African markets duty free after 15 years.

This could deprive East African governments of considerable revenue.

In the shorter term moreover, EAC countries will be expected to open up their markets to other European Union products as long as they do not affect "sensitive agricultural and industrial products."

Mr Morago said that other poor African countries should not sign up to similar deals.

"It suits the European Commission to spread the impression that regions are falling into line and the rest should do so too.

"But we would urge other countries to take heed of the range of voices raised against these deals and continue to ask the Commission for more time to negotiate a pro-development deal and for feasible alternatives to be considered."

But the respected Financial Times newspaper in London said the EAC trade ministers from Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were wise to sign up to an interim deal to ensure market access for their key agricultural sectors.

"Unless new deals are concluded by the New Year, some ACP countries will face far less generous trade agreements," the paper said.

Nevertheless, as the current interim deal involves just goods, the EU is likely to step up its pressure next year to get a more comprehensive agreement that also include services and investment.

The reason for the rush to complete trade deals by the end of the year is the December 31 deadline set by the World Trade Organisation to renegotiate the privileged trade access given to ACP countries under the Lome Convention.

These preferential market-access agreements had been challenged by other developing countries not given access, claiming they were unfair.

The World Trade Organisation agreed, setting in motion a deadline for a new deal.

But as Madeleine Bunting wrote in the Guardian newspaper, "The sting was that the new system of EPAs had to meet the WTO requirement for reciprocity; what started out as the EU doing some poor countries a favour became a trade deal in which the EU was given duty-free access to the markets of developing countries.

"For developing countries, the EPAs have become a nightmare. They are a Damoclean sword hanging over their heads in the form of the December deadline, with all the economic disruption and chaos that would entail, but they also have deep anxieties about what they are being rushed into agreeing."

Meanwhile, Britain has agreed a 10 year aid deal with Uganda worth £700 million.

UK Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander said the Development Partnership Agreement "is an indication of the UK's strong partnership with Uganda, and is based upon our shared values of reducing poverty, tackling corruption and respect for human rights."

BI Helps Fight Poverty

from E Week

By Renee Boucher Ferguson

Business intelligence expands Opportunity International's ability to help people climb out of poverty.

In 1998, Dorothy Njobvu Kanjautso, a 35-year-old mother of three from the village of Lilongwe in Malawi, Africa, found herself widowed when her husband died of AIDS. She had no job and few prospects. But she had a dream.

That dream came true with the loan of $133 from Opportunity International. Njobvu Kanjautso used the money to open the Ketava Nursery and Primary School, which provides education to poor children from her village. The school flourished and, with additional loans, Njobvu Kanjautso was able to hire eight teachers. Ketava now has four classrooms and 250 students. As a result of her achievement, Njobvu Kanjautso is able to care for her children, her mother and three AIDS orphans.
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Opportunity International thrives on success stories like Njobvu Kanjautso's. A Christian-based microfinance organization with deep roots in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, Opportunity International has a single mission: to help the poorest of the world's poor climb out of poverty, one small loan at a time. The loans, sometimes as little as $50, are used to start businesses—anything from a vegetable stand to a classroom.

Opportunity International has set a goal of mobilizing $1 billion by 2012 and helping 100 million people by 2015, a potentially crushing task for an organization that was, a short time ago, inputting financial data from its 45 global partners by hand.

There are a number of key initiatives that will help Opportunity International along its path to fighting poverty: open more financial institutions, extend into more locations and, of course, raise more funds. While Opportunity International uses technology at all levels—including biometric smart cards to provide account access to people many of whom can't read or write—the organization is using Hyperion's business intelligence software as a core strategic weapon.

"By 2015, we'll help 100 million people," Opportunity International President and CEO Christopher Crane said in a written statement. "We're trying to raise the standards in microfinance to equal any banking system in the world. The accountability and transparency that come from excellent data management will allow us to grow and scale quickly—and Hyperion is at the center of our efforts."

Big and Bigger

Opportunity International is one of the world's oldest, largest and fastest-growing microfinance organizations. And with an evolving business model that includes owning banks and savings and loan institutions, as well as entering partnerships with other providers, its financial structure is complicated.

The organization is essentially a network of 45 independent microfinance institutions that operate in 28 different countries; some of the institutions are operated as banks or savings and loans, and some operate as not-for-profit organizations.

All told, Opportunity International has 960,000 customers and expects to be serving 2 million people by 2010, providing both loans and affiliated services.

In 1998, the company formed the Opportunity International Network, which funnels funds from individuals, governments, corporations and foundations into its programs. In 2000, the company began establishing FFIs (formal financial institutions) to broaden the financial services it can provide. FFIs take the form of commercial banks, development banks or credit unions.

The mix of FFIs and not-for-profit organizations makes for a potential financial reporting nightmare, according to Timothy Head, IS and performance reporting manager at Opportunity International.

"The challenge we face is that we're a network of independent microfinance institutions operating in different countries and have to adhere to local regulatory reporting requirements," Head said. "As a result, the systems in each of our countries are unique. We've worked to standardize where we can, but Central Bank reporting is different in one country than in another. … It's our desire to collect financials and performance metrics on all partners and to be able to aggregate that data, but also to be able to analyze the data for external reporting and internal management. It's always been a challenge for us."

Meeting of the Minds

Opportunity International knew that technology could help it overcome this challenge, but, despite its size and stature, the organization cannot afford the hefty price that usually comes along with enterprise applications. As a result, company executives are always on the lookout for suitable software and related services that they can acquire at a reduced rate.

"One of the challenges we face is we are a multinational not-for-profit organization in many respects, with the needs of a multinational organization but not the budget," Head said.

As luck, or fate, would have it, Hyperion CEO Godfrey Sullivan and his wife, Suzanne Sullivan, attended an event sponsored by Carol Waitte, a member of Opportunity International's board of governors. After learning more about Opportunity International's mission and some of the hurdles it was facing, Godfrey Sullivan saw the benefits the organization could glean from Hyperion's business intelligence tools and linked Opportunity International with Hyperion's head of corporate giving, Ron Dimon.

"Working with Ron Dimon and Answerthink [a systems integrator], we evaluated our BI needs, and Hyperion donated the software to meet those needs," Head said. Hyperion and Answerthink also donated consulting services.

Hyperion, which was acquired by Oracle in April, donated a full suite of BI products to Opportunity International, including Oracle Hyperion Essbase, Oracle Hyperion System 9, Financial Data Quality Management, Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting and Oracle Hyperion Visual Explorer.

Hyperion also donated its Web Analysis software, which Opportunity International will develop in 2008 as a GUI that will let users view data in a way that makes sense to them.

In 2005, when Opportunity International received the software from Hyperion, Head focused on building Essbase applications, migrating historic data and loading current data. In 2006, Head focused on generating reports and analysis using different Hyperion tools.

Head said the new software has helped Opportunity International automate a number of tasks, including the tracking of financial data.

"We had two challenges in the manual system," Head said. "First, we collected a large amount of financial and operations data. We had it sitting there—a wealth of information—but [didn't have] the tools to structure the data, to aggregate it and disaggregate it in ways that we wanted to. The second challenge was getting data from various source systems. Getting data from 45 partners was a tortured process—very manual, very labor-intensive."

Head said his first task was to find a better way to get data into a central data repository. His team used Essbase to build a number of applications that allowed users to analyze and report on data.

From late 2006 into this year, Head has been working on rolling out Hyperion's System 9 to partners around the world and developing new reports and analysis.

A New Data View

head said that while opportunity International had always been able to pull together data from, say, three partners in Africa, it wasn't able to do that and then add another partner in the Philippines. Head said the Hyperion software helps the organization compare different sets of data, look across geographies and model what-if scenarios.

To deal with various data formats, Opportunity International utilized Hyperion's Financial Data Quality Management Web-based system to implement a process of import, validate and export that brings data from partners' financial systems directly into Essbase. Currently, Head has 15 partners reporting into the system, and five more are expected to be brought over by year's end. Another 25 partners are scheduled to move over to Financial Data Quality Management in 2008.

"Every system will contain reports of everything we need, but in a wide range of data formats," Head said. "[Financial Data Quality Management] will pull in data in just about any data format."

Head said Opportunity International's biggest challenge at this point is bandwidth. "Sometimes in Malawi, it's a struggle to get a solid Internet connection to our server in the U.S., but, increasingly, even in developing countries, Internet connectivity has improved," he said.

Big Gifts, Big Reporting

Opportunity International boasts a 98 percent repayment rate on its loans—higher than many credit card companies see. That success in helping individuals has, in turn, helped Opportunity International score some major charitable gifts.

In 2006, the company received a $50 million commitment over a 10-year period from longtime donors John and Jacques Weberg. The donation, for the purpose of granting more small loans, was the largest single private donation ever given to a microfinance organization.

The Weberg gift has been supplemented with two separate grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2005 the foundation granted $2,230,642 over three years to help develop a trans-African network of new commercial banks for the poor. The following year, the foundation granted an additional $5,447,746 over three years to create or expand commercial banks for the poor across five African countries, according to the foundation's Web site.

But the grants, particularly from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, come with some strict reporting requirements—something Opportunity International might not have been able to do prior to Hyperion's entrance into the company's IT infrastructure. "The Gates Foundation requires detailed reporting on where their money goes," Head said. "[Hyperion] reporting was in place and it's growing, but the needs of the Gates Foundation have led us to structure our reporting in different ways than we had planned. Now we're working to tailor some reporting."

Growing Needs

In general, said Richard John, chief financial officer at Opportunity International, the complexities of pulling data together and the need for decision making has grown.

John said the company started developing a system in the 1990s to track data from its overseas opportunities, and has been involved in continuous improvement of that system since. But, at some point, it just became too unwieldy. "It ended up that we had probably one of the bigger [Microsoft] Excel applications around, with an Excel database that just became increasingly cumbersome to get the right types of reporting out of," John said.

That system now is being continuously automated with Hyperion's BI software, at the same time Opportunity International's ownership is changing in various organizations.

"Many of the [financial institutions] we own 100 percent, and most of the others [we own] an extremely high percentage of," John said. "The not-for-profits are ours, as well, but they're members of the Opportunity Network, so we sit on the board of all 45. Eighteen are formal institutions out of the 45, so those 18 institutions are reporting [financial data to Opportunity International] monthly. The other 27 are still reporting on a quarterly basis. They all have different general ledgers, different reporting."

With the implementation of Hyperion technology, John's daily life has changed—for the better, he said. The applications have made access to data much simpler and timelier, he added.

Answering questions from other members of Opportunity International's management team and preparing presentations for the organizations' various boards has also become much simpler. "We really needed that [simplicity], growing at 30 percent over the past five years," John said. "The sophistication of the business has ramped up incredibly over the years, and this has really helped us take a look at the performance of the business. We can prioritize where we want management effort and prioritize where we can invest based on performance."

While Opportunity International was able to determine in the past where it needed skills within the business, and where it wanted to invest next, the process was a whole lot slower, according to John.

Future Goals

Opportunity International is also leveraging Hyperion technology to help it meet its future goals.

"It actually will facilitate growth," John said. "Without it, we would be very hard-pressed to grow as fast as we're planning. In order to do that, we'll have to maintain our growth around the 25 percent-per-annum range. That means for the next five to seven years, we're going into two or three new countries per year and significantly expanding operations even in the countries where we operate today."

Hyperion's BI technology will help Opportunity International make investment decisions. "We've been launching a variety of businesses over the last couple of years, and we do that on the value we discover," said Don Ingle, vice president of public relations at Opportunity International. "We had been doing that without a lot of data. Now, as we get into a new business—microschools, for example—the ability to have these systems in place will allow us to move smarter, more quickly and more efficiently to expand or adjust as needed."

The IT department's Head added, "What we are trying to do is move toward a motive by which we operate based on conversations around data and performance rather than conversations around opinions. So we are moving toward a model based on hard facts and performance data, and not just on what we think is going on."

Painstakingly slow progress on poverty reduction - international report

from Reuters Alert Net

SANAA, 3 December 2007 (IRIN) - From what was historically known as 'Arabia Felix' - a land of prosperity and happiness - Yemen has become the most impoverished Arab country, a top-level international report says. It concluded that overall poverty reduction had been painstakingly slow and that people in urban areas had fared better than those in rural areas.

The report, prepared by Yemen's government, the World Bank, and UN Development Programme (UNDP) and entitled Yemen Poverty Assessment, was released on 3 December in Sanaa, Yemen's capital. Its findings were based on the Household Budget Survey which ran from April 2005 till March 2006.

The report said poverty in Yemen's rural areas did not decline as much as it did in urban areas: The percentage of poor people declined from 42.4 percent in 1998 to 40.1 percent in 2005/06 in rural areas, but in urban areas poverty declined from 32.2 percent to 20.7 percent in the same period because urban areas benefited greatly from oil-led growth.

Yemen's economy is highly dependent on oil production, with the country's oil exports accounting for around 85 percent of export revenues and 33 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Yemeni government.

"Oil -based growth does not benefit the poor, especially the rural poor. The oil sector does not contribute to employment among the rural poor population, being a highly industrialised sector demanding skilled labour, which is mostly imported," the report said.

Flavia Pansieri, UNDP resident representative, said that in rural areas poverty rates more or less stagnated, which means development was not reaching these areas in the same way it was reaching urban areas. At least 75 percent of the Yemeni population live in rural areas.

"Attention should be drawn to rural areas both by providing services and also making it possible for the people there to grasp opportunities to pull themselves out of poverty," Pansieri said, adding that it would be difficult to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG of halving poverty by 2015) in rural areas.

The report further noted that poverty worsened by 10-15 percent in 12 governorates in central-northern, central-southern and eastern parts of Yemen.

Seven million poor people

The report specified that poverty in Yemen as a whole had declined from 40.1 percent in 1998 to 34.8 percent in 2005/06.

"However, due to continued population growth the absolute number of the poor remained at around seven million, the same number as seven years ago. The pace of poverty reduction is modest compared to the MDG goal adopted by the government," it said.

According to the report, real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita grew, on average, by 2.1 percent per year between 1998 and 2005/06, and that poverty declined by almost 2 percent annually.

The poverty gap index is 8.9 percent, implying a monthly poverty deficit per capita of about 1,431 riyals (about US$7). In other words on average a poor person would need to get another 1,431 riyals a month to be lifted out of poverty, said the report.

"Perfect targeting of the poor would require only about 124.4 billion riyals per year (about 4 percent of GDP) to fill the gap between the actual spending of poor households and the poverty line, thus lifting everyone out of poverty. The food poverty gap averages about 2,100 riyals for the food-poor, some 75 percent of the average consumption of the food-poor," the report added.

"The achievements in reducing poverty during the past seven years highlighted in the report makes the case for rigorous review and renewal of joint efforts to fight poverty," said Yemeni Minister of Planning Abdul-Karim al-Arhabi.

Zakat - Govt Fights Poverty With N50m

from All Africa

This Day (Lagos)

By Saka Ibrahim
Birmin Kebbi

Kebbi State government has presented N50 million cheque to the state Zakat committee to eradicate poverty in the state.

The government directed that the money should be given to the less privilege in the society.

Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Garba Kamba made the presentation on behalf of the state governor, Alhaji Sa'idu Dakingari, at a dinner organised for the National Co-ordinator of National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Dr. Magnus Kapkol and the Special Adviser to the President on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Hajiya Amina Ibrahim.

The SSG said the Dakingari administration believed so much in NAPEP and other programmes geared towards the eradication of poverty in the country.

According to him, the Zakat committee should ensure individuals, communities and co-operatives benefit from the money.

Said Kamba: "I am presenting this cheque of N50 million to the Zakat committee on behalf of the state government for the purpose of eradicating poverty in this state. This donation is in fulfillment of the promise of the state Governor, Alhaji Sa 'idu Dakingari".

The SSG therefore, urged the Zakat committee to work with NAPEP and Kebbi State Community Based Poverty Reduction Projects (KBCBPRP).

Speaking, the NAPEP Co-ordinator, Dr. Magnus Kapkol, who later presented the cheque to the Special Adviser on Religious Matters, Alhaji Abubakar Alijenari, commended the state governor Dakingari for fulfilling his promise and tackling poverty in the state.

He said he was impressed with all the projects so far executed by the KBCBPRP in the state which are village oriented projects that will change the life of people living in the rural areas.

On his part, Alijenari, who received the cheque promised that the money would be disbursed to the needy in the state and thanked the state government for the gesture.

World's Fastest-growing Refugee Crisis In Iraq

World's Fastest-growing Refugee Crisis In Iraq - Funny blooper videos are here

Relief organizations say almost one third of Iraqis need emergency humanitarian aid Tuesday July 31st, 2007 The war in Iraq has led to the greatest mass exodus of people ever in the Middle East and threatens to overtake Darfur in the numbers of displaced.

A report by Oxfam International and the NGO Coordination Committee of Iraq concludes 'the slide into poverty and deprivation since the coalition forces entered the country in 2003 has been dramatic, and a deep trauma for the Iraqi people.' One in seven Iraqis have fled for fear of being killed.

More than 2 million are now in Syria and Jordan. Another 2 million are believed to be living away from their homes inside Iraq, often in makeshift camps. The report says 70 per cent of Iraqis don't have adequate access to clean water, compared to 50 per cent four years ago.

Humanitarian aid has also declined from 53 million in 2005 to less than 00 million last year. British journalist Patrick Cockburn writes in the Belfast Telegraph the United States 'has 18 benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq but the return of 4 million people is not among them.' APTN cameras recorded the squalid conditions for internal refugees living near Najaf.

[Book Review] Growing Up Empty: The Hunger Epidemic in America

from Mother Jones

Book Review By Lynnell Hancock

Most Americans may find it hard to accept that millions in this nation are suffering from hunger -- an affliction most often associated with war-torn Africa or flood-ravaged Bengal. It flies in the face of everything we've been told about our nation's prosperity. First the Clinton and then the Bush administration have led us to believe that poverty is under control, pointing to the mass exodus from the welfare rolls since the 1996 reforms were launched. The $27 billion cut in food stamps? Justified, lawmakers told us, because the poor are working and feeding themselves. Hunger, it is commonly understood, has long since vanished, along with the 7 million people who no longer receive public assistance.

Yet recent U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics tell a more damning tale. A 1999 study showed that more than 36 million Americans -- one-third of them children under the age of 12 -- suffer from "limited or uncertain" access to food. In 1998, a food relief organization found that as many as 1 in 10 Americans had relied on soup kitchens and emergency food centers in order to eat.

In Growing Up Empty, Loretta Schwartz-Nobel sets out to put a human face on these and other statistics through vivid on-the-ground reporting. She witnesses children rummaging through a Philadelphia garbage can for half-eaten chicken legs. She opens the barren refrigerator of a Marine and his family in a Virginia training camp. She meets an angry rural Mississippi woman trying to feed her four children on $80 a month in food stamps. A North Philadelphia mother says she got so used to hunger that her "stomach ached like rubber bands was tied around it." The result is a harrowing compendium of human stories that tumble into one urgent message: Hunger is a pervasive, hidden, and completely avoidable disease in the United States, a nation that wastes 27 percent of its food supply.

Rampant hunger is as difficult to reconcile with our national image today as it was more than a quarter century ago when Schwartz-Nobel first encountered it. In 1974, as a young reporter, she stopped on a Philadelphia street to help a crippled 84-year-old woman. She bought the woman a bag of groceries that day and would drop by with food from time to time. Several months later, Schwartz-Nobel came calling, only to find that the woman had died alone, of hunger. The wrenching experience led the author to discover that millions of other Americans were quietly starving. In 1981, the results of her reporting were published in the award-winning book Starving in the Shadow of Plenty.

In the years that followed, the Reagan administration cut $12 billion from the federal food program, and one of his advisers boasted that "poverty has been virtually wiped out in the United States." Growing Up Empty turns that claim on its head. By all rights, our food coffers today should be far more bountiful. America is even more prosperous, and more than 140,000 food relief organizations exist today where there were only a few two decades ago. Yet hunger persists, and the reasons are a direct result of government policy. Welfare reforms shredded the financial safety net for the nation's poor while simultaneously pushing low-income workers into poverty-level jobs with no access to food relief or health insurance. No wonder that last year the U.S. Council of Mayors reported that record numbers of the working poor were standing on lines to feed their families.

Perhaps the author's most startling revelation is her exposé of deprivation among the nation's enlisted soldiers. Salaries are so low ($887.70 a month in 2000 for a newly enlisted Marine) that even with food stamps, many military families find it hard to cobble together an existence. The director of a charity for enlisted families in San Diego tells of a soldier who bought 21 McDonald's hamburgers when they were 39 cents apiece so that his pregnant wife would have something to eat while he was away on field duty. His wife ate one a day until he returned. Another young Marine admits that he is accustomed to going without meals for four days at a time when his family's food stamps run out at the end of the month.

This is a book meant to stir outrage, and it is written from the heart. Some may be put off by the author's sentimental asides when the facts are disturbing enough to speak for themselves. Others may find it troubling that she conceals the full identities of her subjects. But the powerful message cannot be ignored. A reader hears the rumbles of invisible Americans who don't have enough to eat. The suffering is plentiful, like the nation's resources.

LynNell Hancock is a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and the author of Hands to Work: The Stories of Three Families Racing the Welfare Clock (William Morrow 2001).

Here is a link to Google books entry