Selling Bonds to provide vaccines

Investors in the UK can buy bonds that will help provide vaccines to the developing world. International Finance Facility for Immunization raises cash to give free vaccines to over 72 countries. The money raised goes to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.

IRIN gives us more details about the bond, and explores the new concerns that socially conscious investing has in this global recession. For more on the bonds, you can click to the GAVI website.

“Normally, when people see a brochure with a poverty-stricken baby on the front, they are being asked for charitable contributions,” said Alan Gillespie, IFFim’s chair, “But with these bonds, we are saying ‘Here are the needs, we are asking you to make an investment.’ Your capital will be paid back with interest from rich donor countries.”

Similar to bonds that governments issue to cover debt, the vaccine bonds raise cash to buy and distribute vaccines by promising a return on investment, said George Richardson, the head of capital markets at the World Bank, which manages the bonds. “We are not asking for handouts. These are investments that support a good cause and have fixed market returns,” he said.

But a good cause is not enough to convince UK secondary school teacher Rosanna Magdalen to make the minimum investment of US$1400, even when she is told that amount can immunise 130 children against five life-threatening diseases, or that her earnings will not be taxed.

“Great idea, the principle is fantastic. I would do it if I had the extra money, but I think anyone would be loath to take any risk in the current financial climate," said Magdalen. "I think HSBC [bank] will be hard pressed to find anyone who would invest. Banks are no longer seen as infallible.”

Risky unregulated lending has been blamed for the global recession, which has forced governments in the US and Europe to pledge some two trillion dollars to rescue their economies.

The World Bank’s Richardson said while he cannot change consumer distrust of banks, vaccine bonds give people a socially-responsible way to save. “Even in a recession, there are people who will diligently put away money,” said Richardson.
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On 2 March HSBC started offering the IFFim vaccine bonds as a five-year tax-free savings account with a 16-percent return. The governments of the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway and South Africa have collectively pledged US$5.3 billion over the next 20 years to repay investors.

World Bank uses the word "recession"

Some very scary figures being cited by the World Bank today. The bank released a report ahead of a major summit of finance leaders to inform them of the depth of the world economic crisis.

The World Bank is warning that the economic needs to bail the world out of the recession could exceed the resources of the international banks. The bank calls on world leaders to contribute 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product to a "vulnerability fund" The fund would be set up for countries without the resources to bail themselves out.

From this Associated Press story that we found in Oregon's Mail Tribune writer Anthony Faiola explains what is in the World Bank report.

The report said that 94 out of 116 developing countries have been hit by economic slowdowns. Net private capital flows to emerging markets are plunging, set to fall to $165 billion this year — or 17 percent of their 2007 levels. Falling demand in the West is sparking the sharpest drop in world trade in 80 years, sending sales of the products and commodities of poorer nations spiraling down, the report said.

That decline is touching off a wave of job losses. Cambodia has lost 30,000 jobs in the garment industry. In India, more than half a million jobs vanished in the last three months of 2008, including cuts in the gems, jewelry, auto and textile industries, according to the World Bank.

As a result, the report estimates that at least 98 countries may have problems financing at least $268 billion in public and private debt this year. It noted a worsening in market conditions could raise that figure as high as $700 billion.

Additionally, only one quarter of vulnerable developing countries, the World Bank said, have the ability to launch their own stimulus programs or to independently finance measures such as job-creation or safety-net programs.

To help them, multilateral lenders will need to dig deep. The World Bank remains well financed and is positioned to almost triple spending to $35 billion this year. But it warned the scope of the need in the developing world will exceed the combined ability of major multilateral lenders, and it called on governments in major nations and the private sector to pitch in more.

For instance, its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund, recently received $100 billion more from Japan, but is still asking more affluent nations to come up with an additional $150 billion to replenish its rapidly diminishing funds. While the World Bank aims to reduce global poverty largely through long-term projects in the developing world, the IMF is charged with offering bigger, more immediate bailouts to countries on the verge of economic collapse. The list of countries fitting that description has soared in recent months.

Susan Tsvangirai has died in a car crash

The newly installed Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and his wife has been involved in car crash. Reports are saying that Morgan Tsvangirai's wife Susan has died in the accident while the Prime Minister has minor injuries.

Details on the accident from the Earth Times.

The wife of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Susan, died in a car crash on Friday in which the prime minister was also hurt, party officials have confirmed. "Morgan is badly bruised and cut, but I'm afraid Susan has died," said Eddie Cross, a member of the MDC executive.

The prime minister has been transferred to hospital in Harare and is receiving treatment for his injuries.

The accident occurred on a notoriously dangerous stretch of road about 100 km south of Harare. Accounts from different officials varied, but James Maridade, Tsvangirai's spokesman said his vehicle side-swiped an oncoming vehicle and rolled three times.

The couple were travelling in an MDC Landcruiser with two accompanying security vehicles, on their way to Buhera in the south-east of the country for a rally of his Movement for Democratic Change. The other vehicle involved was apparently a truck.

"Morgan will be devastated, they were a real team," said Cross.

The couple had been married since 1978.

The accident comes just three weeks after Tsvangirai was sworn in as the country's prime minister, following protracted negotiations with President Robert Mugabe.

This is on the eve of a visit from the International Monetary Fund to Zimbabwe. Officials in the country requested the IMF visit to review monetary policies, and perhaps receive emergency bailout money from the fund.

We don't know if this will halt the IMF visit or not but here are the details from this CNN story.

During the visit, which is being made "at the request of Zimbabwe's authorities," the mission team will discuss with government officials "their policies to address the acute economic and humanitarian crisis facing the country," the IMF said in a news release.

The visit to Harare will last from Monday through March 24, the IMF said.
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Zimbabwe's economic crisis has stretched for months. Its inflation rate -- the highest in the world -- has been fueled by acute shortages of all essentials, including food, fuel and electricity. The country has now abandoned its worthless legal tender -- the dollar -- and instead is using the U.S. dollar, the British pound and the South African rand.

Estimates put the unemployment rate at 94 percent in a country where, according to the United Nations, more than half the population is facing starvation.

The new government is likely to use the IMF visit to seek international aid to revive the battered economy, which many commentators blame on President Robert Mugabe's policies. Last month, Morgan Tsvangirai, the new prime minister, said the country needs about $5 billion to kick-start the economy, of which $2 billion was required immediately.

Controversial economist Moyo takes aim at rock stars

The economist Dambisya Moyo is making a lot of news lately to drum up sales for her latest book "Dead Aid". As a part of the book tour, the economist criticized rock stars who promote African Aid such as Bono and Bob Geldof.

Moyo is of the opinion that foreign aid breeds corruption. She claims that aid makes African leaders more accountable to the donors than to the African public.

From the Sydney Morning Herald, Damiem Murphy records Moyo's complaint to rock starts who try to drum up aid for Africa.

Finally somebody has shown the chutzpah to say "enough already" to those wealthy world-weary worrywarts Bono and Bob Geldof. Sydney-bound Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian-born economist, says the singers have glamorised aid to Africa to such an extent that it is damaging the very people it is supposed to help.

Moyo's book Dead Aid has received huge publicity in the US and Europe, not least because she is been bold enough to speak out against the beatific Bono and the sainted Sir Bob and such feel-good moments as the Live Aid concert of 1985.

Moyo, who is heading to Asia to promote her book, hopes to get to Sydney next month. "Celebrities have raised millions, but it only served to further corrupt governments with the leaders able to steal money without suffering any consequences for years while at the same time the people have been made further aid-dependent. Today Africa is far poorer than it was 40 years ago."

Moyo argues that aid has not only perpetuated African poverty, but also worsened it, and thinks it would be a good idea for all aid to be halted within five years. A firm believer in market forces, she thinks African countries should look towards other sources of finance as India and China did over the years when billions was being given to Africans.

"You get the corruption - historically, leaders have stolen the money without penalty - and you get the dependency, which kills entrepreneurship. You also disenfranchise African citizens, because the government is beholden to foreign donors and not accountable to its people."

It takes everyone to meet the MDG's, a perspective from Nigeria

With only 6 years left, there is a lot of concern over whether the Millennium Development Goals will be met by the target year of 2015. Many countries in the under developed world are not even half way to the goals.

In 2000, the United Nations and it's member states set up the MDG's in a declaration to try to cut human suffering. The goals were meant to halve poverty as well to find solutions to hunger, disease, gender equality, and education.

A story in All Africa has some optimistic views on meeting the MDG's in Nigeria. but the people interviewed say it needs everyone working to meet the goals. In his analysis, Murjanatu Mohammed Abba talked to coordinator of the Millennium Villages Project, Dr Tony Chevron.

In Kaduna, for instance, the programme coordinator of one of the millennium village projects in Africa, popularly known as Pampaida, Dr Tony Chevon, is still of the view that the MDGs can be attained with their kind of organizational plans.

He explained that there are14 of the millennium village projects and two of such projects are situated in Nigeria with one situated in Ikara Local Government Area of Kaduna Dtate and the other one in Akoko North-west Local Government Area of Ondo state.

Taking stock of the progress made by his office, Dr Chevon pointed out that," The purpose of the millennium village project is to eradicate poverty and also assist the rural people in attaining the MDGs and we have been here for about two and a half years and I think with the data we have, we have made milestones as far as some of the goals are concerned, especially the social-related goals like health, water and sanitation, education. I think we made tremendous progress in also the area of agriculture and livelihood".

He reiterated that the goals are achievable, noting that all it requires is concerted efforts by all stakeholders, principally comprising the local communities, local governments as well as the states and federal governments.

According to the programme coordinator, due to the success recorded by the millennium village programme, a lot of important personalities like members of the National Assembly, the Senate and many organizations have visited the project and have given very good remarks. Against that background, he said, the federal government is trying to buy and step up what they have in Pampaida into 111 local government areas across the country.

Preparatory to that, he added that his organization even had to invite some people from outside the country in an effort to achieve that noble objective.

Dr. Chevon, who argued that none of the MGDs are unattainable when all hands are not on deck, also appealed to people at the helm of affair to be transparent and accountable by using the federal government's MDGs intervention fund judiciously to serve the purpose for which it was released .

"We are aware that the federal government is using some funds gotten through the debt relief through the office of the special assistant to the president on the MDGs. And it is releasing a lot of money to the states and also releasing some money to NAPEP to ensure the MDGs are achieved. If such monies are spent by the people who receive such monies, then, there is no reason why Nigeria should not achieve these goals", he argued.

According to Dr.Chevon,"We also need to increase our communication awareness. It's sad that some people at some line ministries don't even know anything about the MDGs. It is not that they cannot know and be part of the process. Somebody has a role to tell the public, tell the people, even the civil servants, what the MDGs are, and how best we can work together to achieve them", he emphasized.

He envisaged: "Therefore, all the MDGs are achievable within the target year of 2015 if we put our hands together and are able to coordinate ourselves more properly. I don't see why we should not achieve these goals. Although we do have challenges, we don't keep a lot of records. So we need to orient ourselves in record keeping. A lot of money is also required to achieve the MDGs .Those saddled with the responsibilities should be transparent and accountable and should use these monies for the purpose for which it is released".

Another humanitarian aid group kicked out of Darfur

The government of Sudan has ordered another humanitarian aid group to leave the country. Leaving the people of Sudan and Darfur without critical aid. Sudan has kicked out 10 such groups already.

The organization Action Against Hunger released a press release about their expulsion. In the release they state grave concern over the people left behind in Sudan. We found the release from Reuters Alert Net.

On Wednesday, 4th March, the Sudanese authorities ordered humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger / Action contre la Faim (ACF) to leave the country. The ACF offices in Khartoum were sealed off and the organisation's programmes throughout Sudan were brought to a halt. ACF deplores this decision and wishes to express its concern about the fate of millions of Sudanese.

ACF has been present in Sudan since 1985, running programmes in food assistance and treatment of malnutrition, as well as providing access to water and sanitation. In 2008, ACF provided assistance to around 450,000 people in Sudan, 80% of which were in Darfur. ACF distributed 800,000 food rations and almost 10,000 tonnes of food in this region, where almost 2.5 million people survive primarily thanks to humanitarian assistance. In addition, 100,000 people in Darfur benefitted from water, sanitation and hygiene programmes.

"If Action Against Hunger has to discontinue its activities in Sudan, 450,000 people will be immediately deprived of emergency assistance and will be left alone to find food and water", says Francois Danel, Executive Director of ACF-France.

Related Video

"A Powerful Noise" screens tonight

We wanted to give this movie another mention as it's a great story about women fighting poverty. The movie "A Powerful Noise" will be shown in theaters across the country tonight. The film profiles three women, who not only hav to overcome poverty in their own lives, but help others who struggle as well.

The event is sponsored by CARE, and will be shown nationwide tonight at 8pm. You can find out more by going to the movie's website.

From the Boston City Guide Examiner, entertainment reporter Charlene Peters tells us about the viewings in the Boston Area.

“A Powerful Noise” is so much more than just a film. It is a catalyst for change and a compelling reminder that the solution to global poverty and injustice lies in the ability of women and girls to have a voice in their societies.

"The world isn't living up to its potential right now because most women and girls lack basic human rights and opportunities we often take for granted in the United States," says Christy Turlington Burns, CARE advocate for maternal health and contributing editor for Marie Claire magazine. "But like the three women featured in ‘A Powerful Noise,’ you can become a champion in your own community to help impact the lives of other women in our world. You can start taking action by joining us on March 5 to really learn about the issues facing women and girls in poor countries."

Powerful Noise Live will take viewers into the lives of three women: a young widow in Vietnam, a mother in Bosnia and a matriarch in Mali. During the LIVE event, movie theaters across the country will turn into community forums as experts and celebrities give their personal insight into the problems – and solutions – facing women and girls in the global fight against poverty.

A third of Americans were uninsured in the last two years

A new report shows that a third of people in the US have gone uninsured at some point in the last two years. The advocacy group Families USA released the report today. The percentage translated to 87 million people under the age of 65.

It should be pointed out that this includes people that were uninsured for a portion of those two years as well as the entire period. Even your humble blogger went uninsured for a couple of months while we were switching insurances.

In this Reuters article that we found at Sign On San Diego, reporter Will Dunham gives us more of the insurance stats.

The report assessed how many people under age 65 went without either public or private health insurance for some or all of the two-year period covering 2007 and 2008. People 65 and older are covered by the government's Medicare program.

Of 262 million Americans under 65, 33 percent were uninsured at some point during those two years, according to the report. This included 60.1 million adults and 26.6 million children and teens up to age 18, according to the report.

Among those uninsured, 75 percent had no coverage for at least six months and 60 percent for at least nine months, according to the report based on survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

About 52 percent of individuals and families with incomes between the official poverty line and twice the poverty line - $21,200 to $42,400 of annual income for a family of four - were uninsured at some point during 2007 and 2008.

The government's most recent official estimate, based on Census Bureau figures, put the number of uninsured at 45.7 million in 2007. But that figure included only those who had no coverage for the entire year.

“There are a number of facets that are essential to healthcare reform - bending the cost growth curve and improving quality, but expanding coverage has got to be among the top objectives of healthcare reform,” Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said in a telephone interview.

High cases of malaria in Children and pregnant women

A nutritionist has worries about the high rates of malaria that she sees among children and pregnant women in Ghana. Nutritionist Hannah Adjei, who works the Ghana Health Service spoke at a forum about her concerns yesterday.

Adjei says that proper nutrition plays a role in recovery from malaria. Malnourished children take longer to recover from the disease if they do at all.

From the Ghanaian Chronicle writer William N-lanjerborr Jalulah reports on the forum's presentation.

Speaking at a forum in Bolgatanga, the nutritionist said malaria remained the single largest killer of children, accounting for about 26% of deaths, and 40% of out-patient and hospital admission cases.

According to her, the limited availability of preventive items such as Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets had been identified as a key bottleneck in the fight against malaria and associated child mortality.

Madam Adjei said the disease was more frequent and severe among malnourished children, leading to higher morbidity and mortality.

She said a recent study in northern Ghana, reported that underweight children were significantly more likely to have clinical malaria and anemia.

She said the main objective of the NMCCSP was to improve utilisation of selected community-based health and nutrition services for children under the age of two, and pregnant women in the target districts.

The project would also support priority areas, like nutrition and malaria control in the programme of work of the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service, which were known to have strong links with child survival, but have received inadequate attention.

Video on the rural poor in America from Nick News

A recent episode of Nick News did a story on the rural poor in America. The story shows children that even with the economic recession is making many more people poor, there have been people dealing with it for a long time. Nickelodeon doesn't allow embedding of the video, but you can find the link below. This would be a good video to show children it they haven't caught it already.

http://www.nick.com/turbonick/?extvideoid=119785

Teen pregnancy in Nigeria

Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. The high rate in maternal deaths are due to lack of access to health care and poverty.

The Voice of America profiles a health organization in Nigeria called Conmpass. The group tries to lead after school discussions with young women to educate them about sex and pregnancy. VOA reporter Brian Padden tells us about the problems of teen pregnancy in Nigeria.

Dr. Mariam Jagun, with Compass, a Nigerian health organization, says more than 20 percent of adolescents girls in this neighborhood are mothers.

"For teenage pregnancy the problem about it is, because they are pregnant early and they are not prepared for it, they are less likely to go for antenatal care," Jagun said.

She says teenagers having babies in Nigeria perpetuates a cycle of poverty and exposes both mother and child to greater health risks. To break the cycle, Compass volunteers reach out to teenagers in Pedro Village to make sure they know that health-care options are available.

Elizabeth Uzo - two months pregnant- says sometimes she feels ashamed.

Dr. Jagun says the Nigerian government, with support from international aid organizations, is trying to reduce the high rates of maternal and infant mortality. More than 200 free health clinics provide care to five million women and children in poor neighborhoods.

The Lagos State has also set up youth friendly centers to provide adolescents accurate and confidential counseling on sex related matters.

The impact of the global economic recession on women

A conference hosted by the United Nations on the status of women is underway. The UN commission is examining what impact the global credit crisis is having on women.

Amongst the factors that are impacting women, they may be at higher risk of being victims of violence during a recession. The conference is also talking about woman's jobs being more likely to be cut during the recession.

Writer Thalif Deen is covering the meeting for the IPS.

Addressing the CSW, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang said: "Historically, economic recessions have placed a disproportionate burden on women."

He pointed out that women are more likely than men to be in vulnerable jobs; to be under-employed or without a job; lack social protection; and to have limited access to and control over economic and financial resources.

The most widespread negative impact could be in the Asia-Pacific region which has one of the highest ratios of women of working age. And, among working women, about 65 percent are in vulnerable employment, largely in the region's informal sector.

Many of them have no benefits - such as maternity leave and pensions - or job security, and are at great risk of falling into poverty in economic downturns, according to the Bangkok-based U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Women's unequal access to decent and productive employment opportunities costs the Asia-Pacific region about 42 to 47 billion dollars a year.

Thelma Kay, director of ESCAP's Social Development Division, told IPS that in many families, household expenditures, such as for food and child-rearing, are managed by women.

"Women dependents are having to care for their entire families on less income, and working women are having to support families with their wages alone, which, on average, are lower often considerably than men's," Kay said.

On top of that, she said, food prices have spiraled over the last two years, forcing women to make difficult financial choices.

"And where school costs become unbearable, it is the girl-children who are more likely to be taken out of the classroom," Kay said.

Decentralizing water in Namibia

A well intended program in Namibia to hand over ownership of water supply may become a poverty trap.

The Namibian government has a program that is turning over operating water holes to local villages. Instead of the government providing the water for free, the villages pay a bill to local management. However, many people in Namibia have trouble keeping up with the costs, and say that those with livestock should pay more.

From this fascinating story from IPS, writer Servaas van den Bosch explains the water policy of the country.

Rural water supply - affecting half of Namibia’s 2 million people - touches on a sensitive apartheid legacy. The South African Water Act of 1956 tied water rights up with land tenure, thus restricting access to boreholes. Communal farmers received water for free, a policy that was designed - successfully - to create dependency on the regime. By repairing pumps and supplying diesel, the colonial government ensured loyalty from the rural population.

The main focus of the rural water supply reform programme, started in 1997, was cost-recovery of operation and maintenance of boreholes. Although ecological sustainability is mentioned in many policies, protection of resources seems secondary to the decentralisation process, say experts.

"The reform is meant to empower people by giving them ownership of the infrastructure, they will manage resources more sustainably", says Timo Katumye, of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry in Rundu.

Water Point Associations (WPAs) were started all over the country and formalised by the Water Resource Management Act of 2004. Under this legislation, water is still owned by the state, but the WPAs are responsible for collection of levies and repair of infrastructure. Of the 7731 communities using a water point, 5213 have established a WPA.

In Epingiro the government has invested in two, thousand-litre, plastic reservoirs to replace the open cement dam. The pump has been fixed and a wooden fence erected to keep the cattle from damaging the water point. The ‘rehabilitation’ is a sure sign that the facility will be ‘handed over’ soon. In Ministry jargon this means shifting all costs for the water supply to the WPA.

Pompa boy Hausiku Joseph is not sure what to think about that. First of all he wasn’t around when the villagers elected him as one of seven Water Point Committee members, the executive that runs the WPA. And although he gets the equivalent of $7 U.S. a month for this honour, the money is gathered as the need arises.

"We tell people to go cut grass for the thatching industry whenever we need money for the WPA", he says. Contributions are usually only made in the dry season. "As long as there is rain people won’t be bothered to pay."

He thinks the old colonial system worked better: "The South Africans used to pay for everything, this government should also provide water for free."

An interfaith alliance to fight poverty forms in Delaware

A new interfaith alliance has formed in the state of Delaware to join people together to fight poverty. The alliance is beginning to bring people together by having a series of worship services designed to educate about the problems of the world.

From the Cape Gazette, writer Tom Walsh attended the first service.

When a service began the evening of Sunday, Feb. 22, at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Rehoboth Beach, parishioners sat quietly in worship and lamentation. As candles were lit throughout the partially darkened room, one church member rose silently and took the pulpit.

“I work at home and my husband [works] in a factory,” said the parishioner. “We are raising four children who are the orphans of my husband’s sister. She died of AIDS, as have so many in our nation of Zambia. Between my husband’s job and what I am able to contribute, we average less than $1 a day. Life is very hard for us in Zambia. I do not know how we will make it.”

As the testimony continued, parishioners learned the hard reality of what life is like for millions of people living throughout poverty-stricken areas of the world. Although the gloomy tale painted a bleak picture of worldwide conditions for many, it served as an appropriate beginning for a new mission centered at local churches.

The first of many services to be held throughout the year, the evening of worship was the official kickoff of the Progressive Interfaith Alliance in 2009. After gathering last year with a mission to foster understanding and share in prayer and fellowship, the group has grown with every meeting. Current members are All Saints’ Episcopal Church, St. George’s Chapel, Epworth United Methodist Church, Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, Seaside Jewish Community and Unitarian Universalists of Southern Delaware.

The Rev. Max Wolf, pastor of All Saints’, explained that while the Interfaith Alliance holds members of many faiths, all the group members have devoted themselves to a common goal.

With a motive to follow the millennium development goals set forth by the United Nations at the turn of the century, the Interfaith Alliance has strived to do its part, one step at a time.

Working conditions of the Tea plantations in Kenya

Tea is a major export in Kenya, it makes up twenty percent of the countries gross domestic product. However, the working conditions for tea workers are tough.

Many workers of the tea plantations live in small shacks, many too small for entire families. So men are forced to live apart from their families. Women often sell their bodies to the men at the plantation, because they are unable to pick enough to make a good wage.

In this story about Kenya's tea trade, the IRIN profiles two tea workers who have fallen victim to the sex trade.

David Wanjala, 38, a married father of six, came from Vihiga, in Western Province, to pick tea near Kericho town, a tea-growing hub in Rift Valley Province, but because of poor pay he is unable to visit his family as often as he would like.

"When I came here seven years ago I brought my family with me, but I later realised I couldn't afford to keep them here; I took them back home and I now live alone," he told IRIN/PlusNews.

"The money I am paid here is too little even for one person ... because of these frustrations, [I] used it to buy sex and alcohol. Sex is cheap here because even the women who work here are paid little and they use their bodies to get extra income."

Wanjala said he only stopped visiting local sex workers after he tested HIV-positive two years ago. "I am lucky because my wife is negative and the doctors have told me how to stay with her without infecting her - people I know have infected their spouses."

Kenya's Rift Valley has a general HIV prevalence of seven percent, slightly lower than the national prevalence of 7.4 percent.

Consolata Awuor, a single mother of two who works on a large tea farm, says her job as a tea picker does not bring in enough to pay her rent, feed and clothe her family, and pay her sons' school fees, so she moonlights as a sex worker in Kericho town.

"For us women, we get even less pay because we cannot pick as much tea leaves [as the men]," she said. "Together with a few friends, we have rented a tin room in town where we provide sex and sell alcohol ... most of our clients are our fellow tea workers."

Awuor is aware of the risk she is running because many large tea companies distribute condoms to employees and hold regular forums to educate them about HIV, but quitting transactional sex would mean pulling her children out of school and having them grow up in poverty, just as she did.

"Missing Meals" a different way of measuring hunger

Second Harvest Heartland of Minnesota released a new study today that measures hunger in a different way. The food bank says that 125 million meals are being missed by people in need.

The St Paul Star Tribune collects other findings from the study. Writer Paul Walsh was at it's presentation.

The "Missing Meals" study is a collection of secondary data that pinpoints exactly how many meals Minnesotans in need are missing. This breaks from the pattern of hunger-relief organizations simply identifying the number of individuals seeking meal assistance.

Among the report's other key findings:

• On average, low-income Minnesotans in the seven county metro area missed 8 percent of their meals.

• About 22 percent of meals for needy Minnesotans is supplied through federal nutrition programs, such as food stamps or school lunch programs.

• There are more than 950,000 Minnesotans who are classified as low-income.

Last year, Second Harvest Heartland assisted with the distribution of 41 million pounds of groceries to hungry seniors, families and children through more than 1,000 non-profit member agencies and programs serving 59 counties in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.2harvest.org.

Increase in requests for Indian child sponsorships

It's not often we report on two press releases in a row, but those are the stories that just happen to strike out fancy today.

Child sponsoring agency Action Aid is reporting a spike in requests for giving money to children in India. This increase started with the award winning success of "Slumdog Millionaire"

In this press release from Action Aid that we found in Reuters Alert Net, the agency tells us about the flood of requests.

With Slumdog mania sweeping the country, the charity ActionAid is having to rush the contact details of scores of Indian children to its offices in the UK.

ActionAid’s fundraising director, Richard Turner confirmed that the unprecedented surge in demand to sponsor children from India had taken the charity by surprise. He said: “We’re calling it the slumdog effect. We haven’t seen such a high level of interest in one country for a long time.”

On average, ActionAid will field just over 500 enquiries a week for child sponsorship.

But the week following the film’s success at the BAFTAS saw the number of enquires rocket to a staggering 1,400 with many specifically asking about children in India.

And since sweeping the board at the Oscars, the film’s effect has continued with ActionAid receiving more and more enquiries about Indian children every day.

Richard Turner continued: “Child sponsorship has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and is one of the most rewarding ways of giving.

“Sponsors’ money helps towards securing a decent education, better health care and economic security for children and the communities in which they live.”

Muhammad Yunus calls for a redesign of the financial world

Muhammad Yunus is calling for a radical redesign of the financial world in the wake of the global credit crisis. In giving a lecture to an UK award ceremony for development, Yunus called on the financial world to give more credit to people in poverty.

Yunus is founder of the Grameen Bank, a microcredit bank he began that gave small loans to Bangladeshi women who did not have collateral. The bank had 99 percent of it's loans payed back. Since then, Yunus has branched out into other ventures that benefit those in poverty.

From the press release on the award ceremony that we found at One World net, are excerpts from Yunus' lecture.

Nobel Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank has called for an urgent redesign of the world’s financial systems and a major shift to a more “inclusive” banking system through microcredit and “social business”. Professor Yunus delivered the Inaugural Ashden Awards Lecture to over 400 people at the Royal Geographical Society last week.
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Responding to the global financial crisis, Professor Yunus described it as an opportunity to bring about fundamental change:

“The financial, environmental and food crises are all interrelated and are all driven by selfishness. We must seize this opportunity to come up with an alternative financial system, based on trust and selflessness. The poor are suffering from financial apartheid. They make up two-thirds of the world’s population but are currently excluded from the system. The real issue is not whether the poor are credit-worthy but whether banks are people worthy” said Professor Yunus.
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“While the financial world collapses all around us, our schemes are thriving - so who is really credit worthy?” he remarked.

Professor Yunus’ lecture also set out his “social business” approach described in his recent book, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism where he calls for the creation of new businesses that are not founded on the profit motive, but on the motive to help others.

Iraqi refugees return to the Middle East to escape poverty in US

The Salt Lake Tribune has a fascinating story today about Iraqi refugees. Flushed out of their country due to the danger and violence many have settled here in the US. Now, many are returning to Iraq or the middle east, exposing the problems with the current refugee system.

Reporter Julia Lyon details the complaints the refugees and human right organizations have against the refugee program.

As human rights organizations call for aid and resettlement for millions of Iraqi refugees, some who are exasperated by America's refugee system are going home or attempting to return to other countries in the Middle East. They feel abandoned by federal policies that offer limited and brief financial support and leave many refugees living in poverty.

Refugees planning to leave acknowledge they may be less safe in Iraq, but believe they will be better able to afford food, pay rent and receive medical care.

Educated Iraqis eager to re-establish their middle-class lifestyle are
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making flaws in the U.S. resettlement system more apparent, while the troubled economy is compounding them, critics charge.

"They're brought out of one crisis into another," said Bob Carey, the chairman of Refugee Council USA, a coalition of refugee advocacy groups. "It's not the type of welcome the U.S. refugee program was envisioned to provide."

From the U.S. State Department to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which is not recommending large-scale return, officials say they have heard the stories of Iraqis returning but believe it to be more a trickle than a flood. The number is not tracked.

About a dozen Utah Iraqis have left or are on the verge of leaving for Iraq or other Middle Eastern countries. For some, Utah's Muslim community has collected donations for plane tickets.

An Iraqi family with seven children living in Utah returned to Iraq a few weeks ago. Another Iraqi single mother is planning to leave for Syria soon. "We feel like we're human beings there," said Mohammed Abd, an Iraqi refugee whose family briefly considered leaving Utah. "We feel like here we are mice."
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Today, the government allots $850 per refugee to set up households, but the agencies take up to half for administrative costs and the remainder can disappear in a family's first month. Depending on a refugee's family size or employment, additional cash assistance may be available for a few more months. Refugees are also eligible for the benefits that all poor Americans can receive such as food stamps.

The global recession effect on the Philippines

25.4 million Filipinos live below the poverty line. Even more are at risk of falling below that line due to the international credit crisis, which has caused the global recession. Those especially vulnerable in the Philippines are those who work in exports.

In this story from the IRIN, we look at the thousands of job at risk in the Philippines.

The National Economic Development Authority projects that 800,000 workers are vulnerable to retrenchment due to the downturn.

These include workers in export-oriented industries, particularly semi-conductors and electronics, as well as Filipinos employed abroad, said Socio-Planning Economic Secretary Ralph Recto.

Labour Secretary Marianito Roque reported that since October at least 34,000 people have been laid off, with this year’s job losses expected to reach 300,000.

In October, government data showed unemployment in October at 2.53 million, while those underemployed, or whose jobs do not fit their education or skills, numbered about six million.

However, the IBON Foundation, an independent think-tank, estimates that unemployment and underemployment are above 10 million, possibly hitting 11 million this year.

Yet with the global financial crisis wreaking havoc on local employment, addressing basic labour issues such as providing decent work has become more difficult to achieve – potentially undermining the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating poverty and hunger.

Productive employment and decent work have been integrated as one of the key indicators in achieving this goal.

About 25.4 million Filipinos are estimated to be living below the Asian Poverty Line of $1.35/day, roughly one in three, while the MDG-1 target aims to halve the number of Filipinos living in extreme poverty - 12.7 million - by 2015.

Even before the International Labor Organization (ILO) successfully advocated for the inclusion of productive employment and decent work in the MDG in 2006, the Philippines had began laying the groundwork in pursuing these goals, involving the tripartite participation of the government, labor and employers’ groups.

Dubbed the Philippine Common Agenda, it covered three cycles beginning in 2002. The last cycle, covering the period 2008-2010, has the theme “Narrowing Decent Work Deficits” as an action framework.