A year after the cyclone, Myanmar still needs a lot

A year after the cyclone that tore Myanmar apart, hundreds of thousands of it's people are still without jobs and stuck in poverty. Humanitarian groups released the status of Myanmar's people on the anniversary of the cyclone.

The storm destroyed 450,000 homes and damaged just about as many. Some of those homes are yet to be rebuilt leaving the people exposed to the upcoming monsoon season.

From Salon.com we find this Associated Press story on the condition of Myanmar. Writer Micheal Casey begins by giving some history.

Foreign governments and charities provided $315 million for food aid and emergency assistance in the months after the tropical storm hit the country May 2-3, 2008, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing and another 800,000 homeless.

But international charities and U.N. agencies like the World Food Program say hundreds of millions of dollars are still needed over the next several years to rebuild the delta's decimated infrastructure and provide farmers and fishermen with the cash they need to regain their livelihoods.

Many noted the funds raised so far are about 40 times less than $12 billion raised for the 2004 tsunami, even though Nargis was the worst natural disaster in Myanmar's modern history and the world's fifth deadliest in the past 40 years.

"We can provide a farmer and his family with food in a weekly ration, but that same farmer will need cash to purchase seeds, to restore fields and replace the plows and livestock they lost," WFP spokesman Paul Risley told reporters at a news conference in Bangkok.
A year after the cyclone, Myanmar still needs a lot
Risley said his agency expects to provide food rations through the year for 350,000 people while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said 100,000 people are still living in tents and in need of permanent shelter.

"Tens of thousands more live in temporary, substandard shelters, which will not be able to withstand another storm," said Bernd Schell, the head of the IFRC's country office in Yangon.

Buffalo's mayor launches poverty reduction plan

The third poorest city in the nation is beginning a poverty reduction plan. Buffalo's Mayor Byron W. Brown unveiled a document that will guide the cities attempt to reduce poverty.

The report calls on four new task forces and expanding already existing services. But the guidelines are already receiving criticism for having no new strategies.

From the Buffalo News, reporters Brian Meyer and Mark Sommer tell us about what the plan contains and some of the reaction.

The centerpiece of the “Buffalo Poverty Reduction Blueprint” unveiled Wednesday in City Hall by Brown and Deputy Mayor Donna M. Brown is the establishment of a task force with four work groups, each charged with developing a five-year strategy for reducing poverty in the areas of jobs, education, neighborhoods and social environment.

Rather than laying out a policy agenda, the 77-page plan largely focuses on expanding or improving many of the 129 programs the city runs to help low-income residents, with “collaboration” and “partnerships” the buzzwords to improve coordination between groups.
...

The mayor has drawn heat for not having a poverty plan more than three years into his administration, 1z years since the city was named by the Census Bureau the second poorest (it’s now No. 3) and 15 months since Donna Brown was appointed deputy mayor and charged with making an antipoverty plan a top priority.

But on Tuesday, Mayor Brown stressed poverty has been a sustained problem in the city before he was mayor, and that neither of his two predecessors, Anthony Masiello or Jimmy Griffin, had put into action a plan to combat poverty as he was now doing.

Brown also stressed that poverty is a countywide problem, pointing out Erie County’s poverty rate –not including city residents — has also been on the rise. He said there are currently more than 123,800 Erie County residents living outside Buffalo below the poverty limit.

Two of the four task force recommendations call for county participation, but notably no county government representatives participated in the plan’s unveiling.

L. Nathan Hare, executive director of the Community Action Organization of Erie County, said any anti-poverty plan hatched by the city must take into consideration the broader challenges facing the region. Hare is co-chairman of the new task force with Sister Denise A. Roche, president of D’Youville College.

Asian Development Bank to boost lending

Another one of the big banks has made an announcement to boost lending to fight off the global recession. The Asian Development Bank says they will boost lending by $165 billion dollars, that triples their normal efforts.

From this Associated Press article that we found in Newsday, we find more details on the decision from the banks board of directors.

The Manila-based bank's board of governors said an overwhelming majority of the ADB's 67 member countries voted to endorse the 200 percent increase to ADB's current $55 billion of capital.

"This substantial increase is a resounding vote of confidence from our shareholders for what we can achieve as a premier development partner in the region," ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said. "We must do all we can to prevent the reversal of hard-won gains for our region in social and economic development, and in poverty reduction."

The decision comes just before the ADB's annual meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on May 2-5.

The capital boost allows the ADB to substantially increase its support to countries affected by the global downturn and to provide an additional $10 billion over the next few years for crisis-related assistance.

ADB estimates the financial crisis will add 60 million people this year in developing Asia to those already trapped in extreme poverty and another 100 million in 2010. Those are in addition to 903 million Asians already living on $1.25 or less a day.

Numbers of poor spreading in Illinois

A new report that gauges poverty in Illinois shows big increases in the unemployed and those seeing assistance from food banks. The increases are such that more counties in the state are joining a "poverty watch list" to indicate troubled economic areas.

From the Suburban Chicago News reporters Dave Gathman and Christine Moyer give us the report's details.

Unemployment and poverty rates are so high in Kane County, the county has been placed on a "poverty watch list" by the Heartland Alliance MidAmerica Institute on Poverty.

The alliance, which released its annual report today, offers a snapshot of poverty in Illinois.

Relying largely on 2007 data, the report revealed unemployment rates more than double those reported last year, a significant rise in local food pantry visits and a precipitous drop in median household incomes since 2000.

And, Senior Research Analyst Amy Terpstra said, a lot has changed since 2007 -- for the worse.

Before the recession even started, about 1.5 million people in Illinois were poor, according to Terpstra.

Since then, she said, Heartland Alliance estimates that up to 400,000 more Illinoisans have become poor. The research analyst spoke with service agencies in suburban communities about the growing need for assistance and she said that "they're just floored, not only by the amount of people coming in their doors, but by the type of people..."

"People," Terpstra said, "who have never before needed assistance."

Kane County had the Chicago-area counties' highest unemployment rate in March, at 10.3 percent. The report also found Kane to have the Chicago area's second-greatest number of severely rent-burdened households -- 24.6 percent -- in 2007, behind Chicago.

"We go week to week not knowing whether we'll have enough food on our shelves," Major Ken Nicolai at the Elgin Salvation Army corps said. "The need is tremendous. We're out of rental assistance and out of electric-bill assistance. We had 1,900 grocery orders in March, and so far in April, we've had 2,600."

Women feed themselves last, if ever

60 percent of thew world's malnourished are women. When food is hard to find or afford, most mothers give what they can to their children first, then eat whatever is left over, if there is any at all. But doing this could have dire consequences for their children in the long run. The lack of food could make their mother's ill and unable to provide for their families.

From The Monterey Herald we find this Associated Press story that profiles one such woman, writer Donna Bryson introduces us.

Phetsile Ndwandwe, short, skinny and 23 years old, accepts an apple from a development worker and nibbles at it, stripping the peel with her teeth before handing the fruit to Siphokazi, her baby daughter.

Siphokazi manages a bite of the apple, the first fruit she has had in months, then thanks her mother with a kiss.

Ndwandwe allows herself only the peel.

The mother's sacrifice, say health authorities, is typical, and creates a problem across the developing world. In hard times, these women tend to think of themselves last. This puts their families at risk, experts say, because malnourished mothers become malfunctioning mothers.

Ndandwe lost her sugar cane plot after falling behind in payments to a village cooperative. So she supports 15-month-old Siphokazi and her 4-year-old daughter, Setsebile, by working in a neighbor's garden in this village in southern Swaziland, taking her payments in vegetables.

Ancient traditions and modern circumstances often combine to place the burden on women to feed their poor families. Researchers say women do as much as 80 percent of the farm work in poor countries. And, with food and fertilizer prices rising, and AIDS and the global financial meltdown taking their toll, women like Ndwandwe are straining under growing responsibilities.

"We eat whatever we can get," said Ndwandwe, after describing a breakfast of corn meal porridge. She said her husband had gotten sick and died but wouldn't say what illness he had. When asked what the family would have for lunch, she said she had no idea.

She has seen the price of an apple rise 50 percent in recent months to the equivalent of about 15 cents. She used to take the bus to town to buy a bag of apples to sell to her neighbors, the small profits supplementing her garden work.

Now, she can't afford the bus fare — and few of her neighbors can afford fruit.
...
But in the face of adversity, solemn-faced Ndwandwe shows resilience.

A development group recently offered her a small plot of land, and she plans to grow vegetables that she hopes to sell to a hotel being built for visitors at a nearby game reserve.

"The vegetables will bring money," said Ndwandwe, who learned simple farming techniques during her elementary school education. "I am a good farmer."

Calling for price controls in Kenya

Charities in the UK are calling the public's attention to the food price crisis in Kenya. The charities say that food shortages are especially great in urban areas of the country.

From Ekklesia, reporter Julia Collings presents the charities warning.

Oxfam, Care International and Concern Worldwide reported on Tuesday 28 April 2009 that rising food prices in the country had created a major food crisis for the urban poor.

Whereas in some more rural areas of Kenya there are food shortages, in the slums, people are starving because they cannot afford to buy food.

A joint study by the charities in Nairobi’s shantytown, Kibera – the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa - showed that 4,000 children under the age of five were malnourished.

“The urban poor rely on the markets for 90 per cent of their food and other products,” said Bud Carnall, director of Care International. “This has made them the hardest hit by the recent commodity price increases.”

The news came a day after the Catholic Church urged the Kenyan government to enforce price controls on basic commodities.

Cardinal Njue issued a statement on behalf of the 25 bishops at the Kenya Episcopal Conference, urging that price controls should stay in place for at least 12 months.
Whereas in some more rural areas of Kenya there are food shortages, in the slums, people are starving because they cannot afford to buy food.

A joint study by the charities in Nairobi’s shantytown, Kibera – the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa - showed that 4,000 children under the age of five were malnourished.

“The urban poor rely on the markets for 90 per cent of their food and other products,” said Bud Carnall, director of Care International. “This has made them the hardest hit by the recent commodity price increases.”

The news came a day after the Catholic Church urged the Kenyan government to enforce price controls on basic commodities.

Cardinal Njue issued a statement on behalf of the 25 bishops at the Kenya Episcopal Conference, urging that price controls should stay in place for at least 12 months.

Lobbying for the poor

The Mobilization to End Poverty event is going on now in Washington D.C. The coalition of 60 faith based anti-poverty groups are storming our government with prayer vigils and demonstrations. In addition, they are sending lobbyists to meet with members of Congress to tell them to keep the needs of the poor in mind with budget issues.

From World Magazine, writer Edward Lee Pitts tells us what the lobbyists are asking Congress for.

The group is calling for all hands on deck to address poverty and to them that includes a larger role for government. Organizers, led by Sojourners, marked the day by sending the activists to meetings in the offices of 82 senators and 215 House members.

Noting that with the nation’s poverty rolls growing by as many as 10 million this year in the face of the ongoing global economic crisis, those lobbying Congress Tuesday stressed the urgency of action: “This is a new experience for a lot of us,” said Jonathan Bettle, 24, of Akron, Ohio, soon after emerging from a meeting with the staff of Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio. “We are not lobbyists. But the Gospel calls us to look out for the least of these.”

For Bettle that translates into calling on government to improve education, access to health care, and the quality of life of its citizens. He said those in the nation who are better off have a moral obligation to welcome tax increases if it means greater support for the nation’s poor.

Beyond this call for increased federal funding and the general rallying cry for cutting the nation’s poverty numbers in half, activists had trouble articulating specific legislative steps that could be taken.

The effort’s printed call to action includes a broad declaration to “protect and defend budget priorities that will reduce poverty” and to “support passage of health care reform protecting the most vulnerable.”

Specifically rally organizers hope to: Expand child tax credits as well as spend at least $4.2 billion to expand access to early childhood education such as Head Start. The Mobilization to End Poverty also wants lawmakers to protect budget priorities that increase federal spending in low-income housing, education, job training, and veterans services.

Comment on making African governments more transparent

With the effects of the global recession hitting the commodity prices of goods from Africa. A Vice President of the World Bank is calling for increased transparency from African governments, to make sure that money from commodities get to the people. Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili commentary comes from the Ugandan paper The Independent.

In times of high commodity prices, good management of oil and mining revenues had the potential to be a springboard for development. With a far less hospitable global environment, it becomes even more urgent for governments to make judicious use of their available resources, and to take the structural and institutional measures that will ensure that future booms – which will undoubtedly occur again – are harnessed to fight poverty and improve the lives of citizens.

How can governments make sure that resource revenues are well used?

Some 28 African governments have adopted the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), with the aim of improving governance through the verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining. In addition, 37 oil, gas and mining companies have agreed to support the initiative, as have institutional investors managing assets amounting, before the financial crisis, to more than $14 trillion.

Joining the EITI is a first step, and one that sends a strong signal of government’s commitment to transparency. Going further, if citizens are to reap the benefits from mining revenues, transparency is needed throughout the entire resource stream, from how contracts are awarded and monitored, to how taxes and royalties are collected, to how investment choices are made and executed. This is referred to as the “EITI ++” approach, which focuses on the better management of the entire resource chain that links commodity revenues to results for citizens. The international community, including the World Bank, can support countries in improving management of the commodity resource stream, and civil society will have a key role in this endeavor.

Several countries are now focusing on that resource chain. Niger and Liberia have approached their partners for technical legal assistance on awarding contracts. In Mozambique and Tanzania, analytical work is helping to foster a dialogue on public expenditure management and financial accountability in the context of rising revenues from mineral extraction. Some countries request support in such areas as auctioning of licenses and contract negotiations with major investors, management of volatile commodity-related revenues, or in improving the composition and quality of public investments.

As the crisis illustrates, commodity rich countries also need to prepare for a time when oil and mining resources might be depleted, by diversifying their sources of growth. Diversification is not a simple task; it requires major policy shifts and significant investments of resources in institutions, human capacities, health, education and infrastructure. For example, many countries with mining resources have untapped agriculture potential. The agriculture sector has accounted for one-third of Africa’s GDP growth over the last 15 years, and with the right kinds of support, including improved water and land management, rural roads and a better policy environment, productivity and value added could increase significantly, making the sector a much stronger contributor to economic growth and poverty reduction, mitigating risk of over-dependency on mineral resources.

The Gold Mines of the Amazon

Brazil's Amazon basin contains a cycle of poverty that promises riches of gold. But many who work in the gold mines of the Amazon basin never reach the dream of getting rich from finding gold. Instead, they find a life of poverty, malaria and crime.

From the Khaleej Times, we find this AFP story on the "garimpo" or gold mines.

“The garimpo, socially, is one of the great open wounds of this region,” said Minister for Strategic Affairs Roberto Mangabeira Unger who is in charge of drafting a government plan for developing the impoverished Amazon.

In the 1980s, tens of thousands of miners, or “garimpeiros”, worked the pits, which became an economic motor of the area for a decade until most were considered depleted.

Rising gold prices helped trigger a new mini-rush in 2008, when local authorities say the rudimentary mines produced 3.5 tonnes of gold. Hundreds, including de Brito, have flocked to Garimpo Bom Jesus since late last year after news spread of a new motherlode there.

De Brito’s words rose over the incessant chugging of the machine used to sift rocks that—if chance smiles on him—could yield shiny particles of gold.

The mine sits at a muddy clearing framed by jungle, in the west of the state of Para in Brazil’s north.

As a “garimpo”—one of the thousands makeshift excavation areas created by informal gold hunters across Brazil’s vast territory—there is nothing industrial about it.

It resembles more an ant farm with holes everywhere leading to subterranean galleries. On the surface, the gold miners fix hammocks to wooden structures to sleep.

The scene owes more to the early images of the gold rush in the US Wild West than to modern mineral extraction: the process here is basic and done by hand. The chemicals used, like mercury, pollute the environment.

Like the Wild West, too, Bom Jesus is a lawless land, built half on myth and half on misery.

Drugs, prostitution, malaria and undrinkable water make the place a hell on earth. Prospectors shoulder their dream alongside guns for hire and shopkeepers.

“I’ve been working the garimpos since I was 20. And now I’m old and washed-up. I’ve got malaria and I can’t get any more medicine. But without the mine, there’d be no money coming into the region,” said Mario Borges, a 43-year-old miner. Like many, he sees his family only when he finds enough gold to pay the overpriced passage by boat or small plane, every four or five months.

Agriculture dying in Iraq

Iraq is suffering a triple threat to it's farming. Too much salt in the soil, water shortages and drought, and land turning into desert are all putting great pains on the countries efforts to provide it's own food. Those three factors have caused many winter crops in Iraq to fail.

From the IRIN, we read a further explanation on the effects of Iraqi farming.

“We are suffering from a real and serious water crisis,” Mahdi al-Qaisi, undersecretary in the Agriculture Ministry, told IRIN in Baghdad. “We are not expecting winter season crops to meet local demand, and summer crops will probably be affected as well,” al-Qaisi said.

Precipitation levels this past winter were only half the normal average, he said, adding that the situation was made worse by a reduction in the amount of water flowing into the Tigris and Euphrates from Turkey and Iran.

“We are counting on the Ministry of Trade to fill the gaps… by importing wheat and barley and distributing them through its food programme [state-run food rations scheme],” he added.

The winter harvest data are not yet available.

“Very scary”

Decades of war, UN sanctions, underinvestment, military operations, and the cutting down of trees for firewood have paralysed Iraq’s agricultural sector and increased salinity and desertification to “very scary levels”, al-Qaisi said.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, salinity is affecting at least 40 percent of agricultural land, mainly in central and southern Iraq, while 40-50 percent of what was agricultural land in the 1970s has been affected by desertification.

According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. It is caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations. Desertification does not refer to the expansion of existing deserts. It occurs because dryland ecosystems, which cover over one third of the world‘s land area, are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation and inappropriate land use. Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing and bad irrigation practices can all undermine the productivity of the land.

The problems with getting AIDS treatment drugs

African's with AIDS have many problems when trying to get drugs to treat their disease. Many drugs are available only in town, so the travel for the poor may be more than they can afford.

If the drugs are available in their village, there are social stigmas still associated with AIDS. The people with the disease may not want to get the drugs near their neighbors, preferring the secrecy of going elsewhere.

As a part of the newspaper's Katine series of stories, Joseph Malinga of the Guardian profiles one villager who faces these obstacles.

James Akadi knows the dangers associated with failing to follow his treatment schedule. A single day without taking his drugs would make his situation complex and, worse still, could endanger his life.

Akadi, a resident of Abia village, in Ojama parish, Katine, is one of more than 200 people living with HIV/Aids in the sub-county who have openly declared their status, but are struggling to cope with life amid abject poverty.

Lack of food, unsafe drinking water, difficulty in accessing drugs, a lack of income generating activities and the stigma of having the virus are some of the problems Akadi faces as he strives to prolong his life.

But of all these challenges, problems accessing drugs is proving the biggest challenge. Twice a month, Akadi has to travel to Uganda Care, an NGO supporting the HIV/Aids patients, in Soroti town, 28km from Katine, to receive antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs. At times, he lacks transport to travel, meaning he will not be able to get his drugs and adhere to his treatment schedule.

"I'm facing a serious challenge of transport. Every month I travel to Uganda Care offices in Soroti to access drugs but most times I find it hard because I'm a very poor man with a family that I have to take care of. So saving money for travelling twice every month to Soroti town is a challenge," he said.

Although The Aids Support Organisation (TASO) has introduced community drug distribution centres in Katine, the stigma still attached to having the virus means some people still prefer to get their drugs in town.

A comment on Kiva

Columnist Chris Noseworthy of the Western Star from Newfoundland, Canada used his latest column to talk about Kiva.org. For his wife's birthday this year, he chose to give gift certificates to the microcredit website.

This year I actually had a good idea. I got her gift certificates, among a couple of other lame things I won't mention. The gift certificates are ones she needs to spend on somebody else. How is that better than a breadbox?

Well, the gift certificates are from Kiva.org and translates into micro-loans to someone in the developing world. You may have seen Kiva featured on Oprah a couple of years ago. It's a charitable organization that has field partners in various countries who work with entrepreneurs in order to get loans.

The money comes from generous people around the world who fund these projects in $25 increments. Each entrepreneur's loan will be supplied by a variety of different people.

It is still a novel approach to sharing the riches of the Western world. To my mind it cuts through partisan boundaries as well.

Anything that helps the poor, works with lefties and the loan has to seem better than a "handout" to the right-wing contingent.

According to their site, the mandate is "Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe."

You might wonder how these people can afford to repay the loans but they do. Kiva is upfront about the fact that there is no guaranteed return on your investments.

According to Kiva, "Of the $31,143,760 of loans with completed loan terms, the default rate is 1.8%. However, past repayment performance does not guarantee future results. When you lend money, you may lose all or some of your principal. You should be aware of the different types of risk and find the right loan option for you, with respect to repayment risk and social return."

Less than two per cent is pretty good. You can visit the site to find out more of the details on the risk associated with lending through Kiva.

The Roll Back Malaria Campaign

It takes more than just passing out mosquito nets to prevent malaria. Education is also needed to tell people why using the nets is important, and it is very important, as malaria kills one million people a year.

From the South Korean newspaper The Chosun Llibo, we find this Voice of America story about The Roll Back Malaria Campaign.

Sackie Williams is a local health worker in Liberia. As part of the Ministry of Health's Door-to-Door Campaign, he goes to people's homes to teach them about malaria and how to protect themselves from the disease. "Actually what we noticed is that more people are not using the mosquito nets. Some people say the mosquito nets have heat, and we are actually explaining to them the importance of the mosquito net," he said.

As part of the "Hang it up and Keep it Up" campaign, the volunteers not only hang up the nets in the homes but also do follow-up visits to make sure they are being used correctly. "The only way we can get rid of it is to tell the people how to prevent themselves and how to get rid of the disease," he said. The Roll-Back Malaria Campaign is a global initiative aimed at providing preventative methods to everyone in at-risk countries by 2010. They estimate that 700 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets are needed worldwide, half of those in Africa.

Though high rates of infection are still plaguing countries like Nigeria, other countries including Senegal, Gambia and Rwanda have seen significant progress thanks to awareness campaigns and improved treatment.

Dr. Claude-Emile Rwagacondo is West Africa coordinator for the Roll-Back Malaria Campaign. He says speedy access to effective treatment is crucial. Yet, health clinics can be difficult to get to in rural areas and people are more likely to go to a traditional healer first. By the time they go to a clinic for malaria treatment, Dr. Rwagacondo says it is often too late. He says insuring the quality and affordability of the medicines can be difficult. Sometimes, when people get sick, they go to a small pharmacy, boutique or street corner, where vendors sell medicines that aren't effective. He says many don't even have the active ingredients in them.

There is a tendency to treat all fevers as malaria in West Africa, and resistance to otherwise effective treatments, like cloroquine, has become a problem. But there are rays of hope, and thanks to the introduction of rapid diagnostic tests and combination treatments, Senegal has seen large drops in both reported cases and mortality rates. Still, malaria impedes economic development and is one of the major contributors to poverty in Africa. The World Health Organization estimates that malaria costs Africa an estimated US$12 billion a year in health expenditures and lost productivity.

Dr. Rwagacondo says if children get sick, they don't go to school and fall behind scholastically. That affects the economy. In rural communities, if the population is always sick, they can't work in the fields and production suffers. Sampson Kollie has malaria. He's being treated at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Liberia's capital. "Malaria is so bad. I'm a victim of malaria. Malaria is a kind of sickness that makes you very weak. You vomit, and it drains you down. I hope the government of Liberia can do a lot for this sickness because malaria's getting a lot of us in this country," he said.

US Treasury Secretary on increasing lending to the poor nations

The US Treasury Secretary was asked his opinions on what the World Bank and IMF must do during the global recession. Timothy Geithner's comments were recorded by Associated Press reporter Harry Dunphy.

The global economic crisis threatens to reverse gains in fighting poverty, so banks that provide aid to poor nations must embrace changes in their operations, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.

Those development banks are at the forefront of efforts to eradicate poverty and promote sustainable growth, he said the World Bank's policy-setting board.

"We cannot afford to lose time or lose ground," Geithner said.

At the same time, he said it was important for the banks to conduct their aid business in the open.

They must face reviews to ensure they have enough money and are promoting fundamental changes, Geithner said. He added that their resources must be used to "achieve the maximum impact on long-term development objectives, including addressing the needs of the poorest."

As the weekend meetings of the bank and the International Monetary Fund wrapped up, finance ministers said they are seeing signs the economy is stabilizing. But they said it will take until the middle of next year for the world to emerge from the worst recession in decades.

Video: The challenges of the mega-city Lagos

With over 15 million people the Nigerian city of Lagos has mega-problems dealing with the numbers of residents. The infrastructure has gone without upkeep due to corrupt governments, or simply due to lack of money. Even if it did have maintenance, the current infrastructure would not be enough for all of the people.

From the website Global Post comes this unique look at the struggle of getting by in Lagos. Writer Sarah Simpson provides the narration on this video.

G7 finance ministers promise more loans to poor nations

The finance ministers of the 7 wealthiest nations promised more money available for loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The finance ministers meet with the leaders of the two banks twice a year to revise policies going forward. The representatives are vowing to keep the global recession from spreading further to the world's more vulnerable economies.

From Canada's Globe and Mail, reporter Kevin Carmichael files this summary of the meetings.

While hardly oblivious to the plight of the poor, economic leaders from the United States, Britain, Japan and other industrial nations have devoted most of their energy over the past year to cleaning up their financial messes at home.

But the risks facing emerging economies in Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe have become so severe that they were impossible to ignore at meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

The economies of emerging and developing countries will expand a mere 1.6 per cent in 2009, compared with 6.1 per cent last year, according to the IMF. Already, 50 million people have been thrust into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis, according to the World Bank.

"The financial and economic turmoil that began in advanced economies is now truly a global crisis that is spilling over into developing countries, and with serious repercussions," Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a written submission to a meeting yesterday of the officials who guide the World Bank.

These biannual gatherings of G7 finance chiefs have become slightly uncomfortable for Mr. Flaherty and his counterparts. For decades, they and their predecessors cajoled and coerced developing nations into following an economic path of free markets, light regulation and private ownership.

The crisis, rooted in the rampant trading of exotic financial assets by American and European banks, exposed the weaknesses of unfettered capitalism as a panacea for global poverty.

"The crisis didn't come from us," said Charles Koffi Diby, Ivory Coast's Finance Minister. "We are the victims here."

Robert Zoellick calls on rich nations to "accelerate aid"

To end the World Bank's spring meeting Robert Zoellick used his speech to demand more from the rich nations to help the poor during the global recession. The head of the World Bank warned of a "human catastrophe" unless the rich nations do more. Zoellick also admitted that the Millennium Development Goals are likely will not be met because of the recession.

From the BBC, are some quotes from the Zoellick's speech.

"There is a widespread recognition that the world faces an unprecedented economic crisis, poor people could suffer the most and that we must continue to act in real time to prevent a human catastrophe," said Mr Zoellick.

He added that no-one yet knew how long the global recession would last.

In a joint statement, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) said they had urged "all donors to accelerate delivery of commitments to increase aid, and for us all to consider going beyond existing commitments".

World Bank managing director, and former Nigerian Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said there was now a real crisis in Africa as a result of the worldwide recession.

She said that as a result of falling demand for commodities and other exports, government budgets were falling short across the continent.

"This means that [governments] cannot pay teachers or health workers, and we are hearing of people who can't eat three square meals a day," she said.

Related Video

Saturday Missions: Ag Against Hunger

A great charity in California grabs unharvested food from area farming fields to feed the hungry. Ag Against Hunger from California gather volunteers to grab the food that was missed by harvesters before it gets turned over into the soil.

From the Californian, Rusten Hogness gets dirty with the volunteers.

This Saturday will mark the start of Ag Against Hunger's new gleaning season, in a field near San Juan Bautista. No word on what the crop will be, but volunteers can be sure of harvesting satisfaction, knowing they are helping to feed hungry families.

Gleaners salvage lettuce, broccoli, onions, celery - whatever is left in the field after the harvest before the tractors roll in to till it all back into the soil.

Whatever is gathered will go back to the Ag Against Hunger coolers in Salinas. Within a couple of days, it will be on trucks going to food banks as far away as Sacramento, though most of it will stay here in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.

Last year, according to Ananda Jimenez, who coordinates the

gleaning for Ag Against Hunger, gleaners picked and gathered more than 120,000 pounds of fresh produce that went to food banks instead of getting tilled into the soil.

"We really need to give more to the food community that supplies food for the needy because I know there's an increasing need," said Schapper, who will soon be a supervising nurse at Salinas Valley State Prison after working at Natividad Medical Center for 27 years as a nurse manager.

"Lots of employees I see are really hurting. They have to hit the food banks to make ends meet."

It would be hard not to see the need, she said. "It's in the media, it's in my workplace, it's in the neighborhood, it's everywhere."

World Malaria Day

Today marks the second World Malaria Day. A summit on malaria is going on to mark the occasion and the US is making a pledge to end the 1 million deaths a year from malaria. The US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice is saying today that the US wants to completely stop malaria by 2015.

From the Associated Press via Google, reporter Edith Lederer recieved a transcript of Rice's speech.

"Malaria, simply put, is something we can end. And today I am here to say that malaria is a scourge we can end," she said.

Rice is the keynote speaker at the summit on the eve of the second World Malaria Day that will bring together global leaders in the fight against malaria and African and American faith leaders. They will launch a campaign to mobilize resources to help interfaith institutions in Africa fight malaria more effectively through increased mosquito net distribution and local community education.

On the first World Malaria Day a year ago, the U.N. secretary-general announced a new global initiative to provide mosquito nets and insecticide spraying for everyone at risk of malaria, diagnosis and treatment for those with the disease, and training for community health workers to deal with malaria. He said the initiative would also encourage research into the control, elimination and eradication of malaria.

Ban said the aim of his "bold but achievable vision ... is to put a stop to malaria deaths by ensuring universal coverage by the end of 2010."

The timetable that Rice gives is five years longer.

"President Obama is committed to making the United States a global leader in ending deaths from malaria by 2015," she said. "If we continue to work in the spirit of unity and shared purpose that has already led to substantial progress, this is a target we can hit."

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 250 million people get malaria every year, and it kills almost 1 million, the vast majority young children. Many drugs have lost their effectiveness against the parasite, and there is no vaccine, although advanced testing of an experimental candidate that promises partial protection is under way.

School children raise money for water

Children in San Mateo, California are raising money for Water Partners International, a charity that develops safe drinking water and sanitation for the underdeveloped world. Not only are the children raising money for safe water, but they are also learning about the importance of water especially for other parts of the world.

From the San Mateo Daily Journal, Heather Murtagh details the fund raising effort.

Looking for a class project, eighth grade students at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School found clean water to be an interesting topic — and, as it turns out, an enlightening one.

A person can get clean water for life for $25, according to WaterPartners International, a U.S. nonprofit committed to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries. The St. Matthew’s community set a goal of raising $10,000 — enough to provide clean water for a village in India. Efforts kicked off in March on World Water Day and ended yesterday, Earth Day. Through a change drive, an Indian dinner feast and other activities students raised cash for the cause. Money raised will be tallied today.

Students needed a class project and learned about the need in other countries for clean water, explained 13-year-old Nate Mooi.

A St. Matthew’s parent, Tony Stayner, is on the board for WaterPartners and had taken his two eighth-grade children to India to see the work in November. The trip provided a firsthand experience with poverty and effects of not having clean water.

“I didn’t think about how much we have and other’s don’t,” said seventh grade student Nicole Crisci.

Thirteen-year-old Nicki Williams agreed, adding how often water is used daily without a thought. Brushing your teeth or taking a shower are routine here.

“It’s a luxury if you put yourselves in their shoes,” she said.

Fifth grade student Polly Finch takes a shower in the morning and evening. She thought the idea of a shower must be amazing to those in impoverished countries.

Through the project, students began to learn about the effects of water. For example, a five-gallon water jug weighs about 40 pounds. In areas without clean water, children often must carry these jugs three to four miles. As a result, the children end up missing opportunities for education.