Slain aid workers laid to rest in Afghanistan

The group of aid workers who were killed in Afghanistan were buried in Kabul Saturday. The group was in Afghanistan to treat eye disease in remote villages.

The group of aid workers were attacked after they had just completed a long trek by foot and returned to their vehicles. It was there that the militants ambushed them, killing the entire group by either gunfire or grenades.

You might remember this story from a previous post where we linked to an account from the Telegraph that provided grizzly details of the attack. Since the killings, CURE International's blog has been running a series of tributes on one of the victims Dan Terry.

From this AFP article that we found at Google news, writer Lynne O'Donnell describes the attack and its victims.

A small crowd of family and friends, and dignitaries including US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, attended a solemn service at the 121-year-old cemetery for Tom Little, 61, and 63-year-old Dan Terry.

The men were found shot dead on August 6 while returning from a trip to provide healthcare to people living in remote and poverty-stricken Nuristan province.

In all, five US men and three women -- an American, a German and a Briton -- were killed along with two Afghans. The group's driver survived.

The Taliban and militant group Hizb-e-Islami initially claimed responsibility for the attack, which the government said was the work of "terrorists".

A representative of the Taliban in Nuristan later told the Afghan Analysts' Network (AAN) the Taliban had not carried out the killings.

AAN quoted Qari Malang, who it said was a "representative of the Taliban front of Western Nuristan", as saying: "We condemn these killings and consider them to be murder."

The volunteer medics worked for the Christian aid group International Assistance Mission (IAM), which has long had a presence in Afghanistan.

In claiming responsibility for their deaths, the Taliban claimed the group had been carrying Persian-language Bibles and had been proselytising.

However IAM has a non-preaching policy, and family and friends of the medics say there was no religious dimension to their work.

The party included Karen Woo, 36, a British doctor who had been due to marry on August 20; German Daniela Beyer, 35, a translator; and four Americans -- Cheryl Beckett, 32, a translator; Brian Carderelli, 25, a freelance cameraman; Dr Tom Grams, a dentist; and Glen Lapp, 40, an intensive care nurse.

Video: Millions left homeless in Pakistan

From Medecins Sans Frontieres, this video depicts some of the damage and medical issues stemming from the Pakistan flooding. MSF or Doctors Without Borders, is a humanitarian organization that concentrates on medical services for the under-developed world. You can learn more about the work of MSF by visiting their website.

France kicking Roma out of country

A controversial move by French government is kicking a minority out of the country. The Roma are being sent back to Romania over concerns that the wandering band of gypsies cause crime and prostitution.

From this story at the New York Daily Times, writer Aliyah Shahid gives us more details on the deportation.

France began the controversial deportation on Thursday, placing 79 Gypsies on a flight to Bucharest, Romania, according to Immigration Ministry authorities. Approximately 700 men, women and children are expected to be kicked out.

Critics have called the policy racist and have compared it to France's wartime detention of Jewish citizens.

"I am worried about the risks of populism and xenophobic reactions in a context of economic crisis," Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi told Radio France International.

The government gave $386 dollars to each adult and $128 to each child who left on a voluntary basis, according to officials. But advocates for the Roma said those who declined the offer would be sent to holding centers, where they would eventually be deported anyway.

The Roma are a group who live, often in poverty, mainly in southern and eastern Europe. The group has been persecuted through much of history.

The foreign-born Roma are often seen begging for cash in France's big cities, and have been considered by many to be a public nuisance. Sarkozy has linked the group to crime, which has resulted in the exploitation of children and prostitution.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/08/20/2010-08-20_french_president_nicolas_sarkozy_begins_crackdown_on_gypsies_more_than_100_put_o.html#ixzz0xAVPKXUW

Guest Voices: The “Front Lines” Can be “Behind The Scenes”: World Humanitarian Day 2010

For the last installment of World Humanitarian Day themed guest posts from Concern Worldwide. Anne O’Mahony, the country director of Kenya, remarks on the humanitarian work that was behind the recent constitution referendum. Concern Worldwide works with poor people in the under-developed world to help them survive poverty and hunger.

This morning in Nairobi, Kenya, Concern Worldwide marked the second commemoration of World Humanitarian Day with colleagues from NGOs, Red Cross Societies, the UN, government representatives from both Kenya and Somalia, and other humanitarian actors. It was uplifting—and hugely important to recognize the contribution and sacrifices that humanitarian workers make in this troubled world of ours. Here in Kenya, this day could have gone very differently.

On August 4th, Kenya held a constitutional referendum.

For about two months leading up to this event, the humanitarian community was immersed in planning for the potential humanitarian consequences that could have arisen if the referendum had triggered outbreaks of rioting and violence—as was the case following the last general election here. Building on the knowledge and experience we gained during that crisis in 2008, meetings were held, scenarios developed and outlined, conflict hot-spots identified, humanitarian relief supplies prepositioned, communication networks and plans set up, transport and logistic hubs identified, staff vacations cancelled, tasks and response sectors allocated, and potential relief centers earmarked. We engaged community leaders in raising awareness and in conflict management—sharing tools and information on how to defuse potentially charged situations. The Government engaged with these efforts, and security was beefed up.

It was a huge exercise, and the humanitarian community was were ready.

Referendum day dawned, the polls opened. People went to vote. Polling was orderly and efficient. The count was transparent and accurate. The result was announced in a timely way. It was a fantastic outcome. Not a bad word was spoken nor a shot fired. It was a smooth referendum. We could all relax and get back to business.

Humanitarian work is not just about the front line stuff in Haiti, Pakistan, Somalia or Afghanistan. It is as much about preparedness and prevention as it is about response. It is about the quiet, unsung work carried out by humanitarian workers with varying expertise behind the scenes that enables us to be ready to respond adequately to humanitarian situations and limit the suffering of the most vulnerable in our society and our world.

If the Kenyan referendum had not gone smoothly, we could have been marking a very different World Humanitarian Day here in Nairobi. But I am happy to say that instead, we were able to see the results of our hard work and honor our colleagues as well as the populations with whom we work.

Flooding brings new distrust of Pakistan government

The flooding in Pakistan has created a new distrust of government. When Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani left for France during the height of the flooding, it made him and the rest of the government seem uncaring.

From IPS, writer Zofeen Ebrahim has a couple of reactions to how the government is responding to the crisis, Ebtahim also gives some examples of people taking it upon themselves to get money and goods to the victims.

"I don’t know where and how to begin helping these people who have lost just about everything – their home, land, livestock and some even their families," says Siddiqui, a 35-year-old mother of two.

While the calls for assistance say how to and who to give donations to, she is unsure whom she can trust. But she is sure that her donation will not be going into the relief fund set up by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

This is a common refrain heard here every day, reflecting the deep mistrust of and anger against the government. For many, this sentiment has been exacerbated by President Asif Ali Zardari’s sojourn to France and Britain earlier in August, when the destruction caused by record floods was at its peak.

"I haven’t heard in the media even once how much donations the ruling elite have given to this fund, how can the government expect me to put my money in it?" 75-year-old Salma Ahmad says angrily.

"This government is not honest, that’s what we hear on the media daily. There are no refutations from them, which means it’s all true. The message we get is they don’t care. Only last night I heard our foreign minister talking to the Pakistani expatriate community in the U.S. telling them to donate generously," says Azra Ahsan, a Karachi-based obstetrician. "He said if they didn’t trust the government, they can give to groups they do, but donate they must. It was laughable for a government to admit this."
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Some have started their own collection drives for goods and cash. Salim Tabani, 49, a factory owner in Karachi, took four truckloads of rations that he and his friends donated to Khairpur and Kashmore districts in Sindh province ."Now I know better what is needed and will go again next week with more goods," he said.

In Karachi, abuzz with a bevy of fund collectors, a group of young women collects clothes for flood victims. Textile design students are collecting old, faded T-shirts, which are made into blankets, mattresses and hammocks. An art gallery held a "silent auction" of paintings collected from 88 artists and raised 1.26 million Pakistani rupees (140,000 U.S. dollars). Meantime, another group of women collects plastic water and soda bottles and fills them with clean water.

In Peshawar in north-west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 32-year-old Najiullah Khattak has collected over 2.2 million rupees (250,000 dollars) since he started a group on the social networking site Facebook on Aug. 2. "To be honest, I and a few friends decided to collect some funds and give it to an organisation, thinking that’s where our responsibility would end," Khattak told IPS by telephone from Peshawar. "All I did was tell people on Facebook what we were doing, and people just came in with their donations."

Guest Voices: The Right to Live with Dignity: World Humanitarian Day 2010

Continuing our series of guest posts from Concern Worldwide, is another reflection on World Humanitarian Day. Peter McNichol is the director for Concern efforts in the Republic of Congo. NcNichol gives us his reasons for remaining committed to humanitarian work. Concern Worldwide works with poor people in the under-developed world to help them survive poverty and hunger.

I have been a humanitarian worker for more than 14 years in some very tough environments, including Angola and Zimbabwe. But working as Concern Worldwide’s Country Director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for the past two years has definitely been one of the greatest challenges of my career—and one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

And DRC is a country in which the need to uphold and adhere to the principles of humanitarianism is stark. In the east of the country, complex and ongoing conflicts involving rebel groups and the army have displaced millions and caused huge suffering and loss of life. Our humanitarian identity is what grants us access to the families and communities whose lives have been utterly ravaged by conflict: we are able to reach people who need help. And we target those we help based solely on their level of need and vulnerability—regardless of politics, religion, and ethnicity.

Much needs to be done, on the global level, to change the entrenched extreme poverty and the ongoing violence and unrest that have left en estimated 6 million dead and laid waste to a magnificent country blessed with rich natural resources. The powers-that-be (local, regional and global) will decide the big picture. Building an effective government to serve the needs of a country the size of Western Europe is an enormous challenge. But that is not the job of humanitarian aid workers.

Today, in recognition of World Humanitarian Day, I want to talk about the reason I get up in the morning and renew my commitment—and about what motivates my colleagues at Concern Worldwide and at fellow humanitarian organizations around the world, even in dangerous and extremely stressful environments. What keeps me going is my desire to give ordinary people a shot at lives of common dignity—the kind we take for granted in the West.

Ultimately, the fight for resources—in particular the country’s valuable mineral resources—fuels the poverty in DRC. But there are other, more essential resources that the humanitarian community can provide for the huge number of families caught in the crossfire. Humanitarian aid is a lifeline for the poor and disenfranchised, those who have no power or control over their country’s mineral resources, and for whom ultimate “victory” would mean simply being able to settle safely in one place, feed their children, and see their crop grow for a full year. For many, their brightest hope is be able to move out of a camp for Internally Displaced People where they have been living for years, and build a small wooden structure that their family can call home.

DRC’s millions of displaced people—some living in camps and makeshift shelters, others utterly without shelter and often physically and sexually abused by soldiers or rebels—are why humanitarian workers are necessary. They have no assets whatsoever, and no food: they are often completely dependent on aid agencies for survival. As is true for all our work around the world, Concern Worldwide calls on communities to be actively involved in the design of our programs and to contribute to the task at hand.

But in DRC, I find that our often work starts with helping people survive. Children are often ill due to lack of shelter. Families lack even the most basic means, such as pans to cook with and boil water. Such essentials as blankets, utensils, plastic sheeting, and soap bring not only a measure of dignity—they save lives.

In some parts of the country—for example, Katanga Province—hostilities have ended and many people have returned home. What they need now is support to get back on their feet as they continue to face excruciating poverty. Security permitting, we increasingly distribute cash vouchers so that people have the resources to make choices about their greatest needs, whether they are for food, school fees, health care, clothing, or shelter. Concern Worldwide is also rebuilding roads and bridges, which are often impassable for great parts of the year. Concern involves local people in cash-for-work programs to provide the labour. These modest sums can have a huge impact. And a rehabilitated infrastructure means safer travel and gives small traders access to markets.

Being present where the need is greatest: for me, that’s what it means to be a humanitarian worker. To come to the aid of people facing terrible odds and show them they have not been forgotten, and that they are not alone. To offer them creative solutions that do not cost a lot.

Being a humanitarian worker is about every day being different. It is about often being frustrated, but fundamentally it is about something much greater than this: no one in the West would be abandoned to such conditions, yet simply because of where they were born, millions of people, and children, here suffer so very greatly. Being a humanitarian means remembering this always. We cannot forget that this is not about charity: it is about a fundamental right that every human being should have: to be able to live in dignity. That is what makes each and every day of my life as a humanitarian worker not only challenging, but also very humbling. And for that I am grateful, especially today.

Guest Voices: We Must All be Humanitarian Workers

For World Humanitarian Day, we have this important reminder that we all must do our part. For the next post in our series from Concern Worldwide, Ros O’Sullivan reflects on his 20 years of work as a humanitarian. Concern Worldwide works with poor people in the under-developed world to help them survive poverty and hunger.

For the past 20 years, I have been a humanitarian aid worker on the frontlines of some of the world’s worst crises. Today, in solidarity with the United Nations, I join humanitarian workers around the world in celebrating World Humanitarian Day and honoring personnel who have lost their lives to assist people in crisis.

Humanitarian work is not for the faint-hearted or the timid. To be successful in this work, you need to be able to function in chaos and live with uncertainty. Even so, there are some things about aid work of which you can be certain:

* the work load will be immense, the work environment intense, and you will be tested to the full – working 16 hour days, seven days a week in the first stages of a response
* you will meet amazing people working closely together to save lives and reduce suffering
* you will experience the whole range of emotions known to mankind in the course of the emergency
* you will be profoundly touched by the resilience of those affected as they come to terms with the disaster
* you will leave the area exhausted, but knowing that others, equally committed, will still be there to ensure that the needs of the people are met

World Humanitarian Day highlights all of this. It recognizes the sacrifice it takes to do this work, and commemorates the individuals who have paid the ultimate price in places like Chad, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. For me, World Humanitarian Day is also about more than that. It is about shining a spotlight on the underreported issues that my colleagues and I face in the field every day. Issues that everyone needs to make their business, not just humanitarian workers.

The frequency and type of humanitarian emergencies in the past decade have increased at an alarming rate. They range from wars and conflict to natural disasters such as flooding, drought, cyclones, volcanoes, and earthquakes. I can tell you from personal experience that the poorest communities are always the hardest hit in crises: to truly understand extreme poverty and the human toll of disasters and emergencies, you have to experience it at ground level and walk among those affected.

In the past four years, I have witnessed a lot of suffering—as well as resilience and dignity—among families in Darfur, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Democratic Republic of Congo, to name a few. In other countries, I have seen evidence of a decade’s hard-won development being eroded by climate change, the global financial crisis, poor governance, urbanization, population pressure, and the scramble for natural resources.

I have also experienced the rise in insecurity, violence and criminality that make humanitarian work increasingly dangerous. We must be present in some of the world’s most difficult environments to reach those in need. This can become complicated when we work in places where international military forces also have operations involving relief efforts. Our security is dependent on how we are perceived locally and on ensuring that there is a clear distinction between humanitarian work—which by nature adheres to the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence—and efforts by the military to deliver aid.

What defines us—and ensures “humanitarian space” and access to populations in crises—is that we have no agenda above and beyond the mandate to help those in need. A key part of this is ensuring that local people understand that we deliver aid with no strings attached, regardless of race, religion or politics. Another vital aspect of humanitarian work is that we make ourselves accountable to the people we assist and work with—and involve them in the assessments and the design of our programs. The people affected by crises are integral participants in the “aid” process.

I am proud to be a humanitarian worker and to be able to get involved when disaster strikes. And I am fortunate to work for an aid agency that is responding to the world’s major emergencies.

But it’s getting harder to do this work effectively, safely, and at the scale needed. The needs are often greater than our ability to respond to them.

In a year that has brought us the mega-disasters of the earthquake in Haiti and now the epic floods in Pakistan, World Humanitarian Day has even greater significance. It is clearer than ever that humanitarian work belongs to all of us: we all have a role to play to do whatever possible to ensure that those in crisis have access to help.

SKS Microfinance offers another wrinkle to microcredit debate

India's biggest microcredit lender made an initial offering of stock earlier this week. This move proved very profitable for SKS Microfinance, but very controversial for the many involved in microcredit. Some say that such a stock offering only profits the company at the expense of the poor. The other side of the debate says that such offering of stock helps to raise more money for even more loans to the poor.

From Fortune Magazine at CNN Money, writer Nin-Hai Tseng explains the debate further.

An IPO is a rare and controversial step for a major microfinance company to take, since these lenders typically rely on donations, governments and international organizations such as the World Bank for funding. Only a handful have raised public money on the idea that helping small entrepreneurs like farmers and basket weavers gain access to financing is not only the right thing to do, but also a profitable venture.

But after SKS's strong reception, others will likely follow its lead to the public market. SKS founder Vikram Akula says going public is perhaps the only way to shore up more capital to serve more of India's poor. He wants to prove critics wrong, including Yunus, who argues an IPO would essentially mean profiting off the poor. The Bangladeshi banker and economist has been credited for pioneering microfinance, and in 2006, his founding of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank earned him and the bank a Nobel Peace Prize.
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The industry faces a sticky dilemma: to pursue morals or profits. But public microlenders argue they can have both. By getting stockholders involved, SKS raises more capital, which leads to more loans for India's poor. And more loans could eventually drive down interest rates charged to poor borrowers.

But somewhere, the economics of scale gets lost. These are high-risk borrowers. They have few, if any, assets to use as collateral. Some might own land, but don't always have titles proving this. It's hard to see how interest rates could fall much, if at all. Indeed, the pressure of answering to public shareholders could have the opposite effect, leading to higher rates for borrowers.

More and better aid demanded from Australia

With elections coming up in Australia, a coalition of non-profit aid groups are calling for more and better aid from the government. Australia's aid budget is going to double by 2015 but it will still be at only half of what NGOs would like to see.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Neena Bhandari gives us this story on Australian development issues.

The 72-member Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), an independent association of Australian non-profit aid organisations, is spearheading calls for political parties to commit Australia to playing its full part in helping poorer countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of development targets from maternal mortality to education that the world’s governments pledged to meet by 2015.

Given present trends, Australia’s aid budget is expected to double from the current 4.35 billion Australian dollars (3.9 billion U.S. dollars) to between eight to nine billion Australian dollars (7.2 to 8 billion U.S. dollars) in the next five years.

Foreign aid from Australia, which belongs to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) or group of donor countries, is projected to be at 0.35 percent of GNI, the U.N.-agreed measure of rich nations’ foreign aid funds, in 2010, according to OECD figures. That is half of the 0.7 percent of GNI measure.

"Australia has the lowest public debt among OECD countries, as well as low unemployment and strong growth, and yet we are still not giving our fair share of the funding needed to meet the critically important MDGs," said Tom O'Connor, chief executive officer of the non-government group The Oaktree Foundation.

"Neither is the quality of our overseas aid assistance up to scratch. For example, we only give about one-third of our fair share to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria," O’Connor added in an interview.

In the run-up to the polls, the ruling Labor Party and the Liberal-National Party Coalition have proposed that Australia increase its aid commitments to 0.5 percent of GNI by 2015. The Greens Party, which has seen a record surge in support from voters switching away from the two main parties, supports increasing Canberra’s commitment to 0.7 percent of GNI.

Australia was ranked the 13th aid donor as a percentage of national income in 2009. In its current budget, most of its aid (411 million U.S. dollars) goes to Indonesia, followed by Papua New Guinea (409 million U.S. dollars), Solomon Islands (202 million U.S. dollars) and Afghanistan (110 million U.S. dollars).

But activists say it is not just the amount of aid funds that the Australian government needs to work on, but the quality and focus of its aid programme.

A lot of Australian aid funds consist of tied aid, raising the question of whom they actually benefit, they add.

"Much of Australia’s donor contribution was described as ‘boomerang aid’ as one-third of the donated dollars never left the country, and up to 90 percent of overseas development contracts were won by Australian-based companies," said Joel Negin, a lecturer on international public health at the University of Sydney. "The language of aid has been shifting from recipient to partner government, from conditionality to mutual responsibility."

Slow aid and more rain in Pakistan

More rain is expected in Pakistan this week, if the rains are heavy enough they could further the misery brought about by the flooding. The disaster has killed 1,500 people and has displaced millions. Those displaced by the flooding are more in number than those who homes were destroyed in the Haiti earthquake.

From this Associated Press article that we found at the Wichita Eagle, writer Tim Sullivan gives us this update on the disaster.

"It's not just the scale (of the floods), it's the depth as well," said Arif Jabbar Khan, the humanitarian operations manager for the aid group Oxfam Pakistan. "People have lost most, if not all, of their assets. People save all their life, and now it's all gone."

Nabi understands that kind of loss.

"I have seen floods before. We had them in the 1970s. But I have never seen anything like this," said Nabi, 63, a thin, bearded man whose wrinkled face reflects his many years working in his fields.

Behind him, nearly 50 members of his extended family — with their mattresses, bicycles, battered metal trunks, cooking pots, plastic buckets and a couple of electric fans — were piled on a trailer pulled by a tractor.

He'd been lucky that day — he'd managed to grab a 22-pound bag of flour when an aid group drove through town throwing bags of food to a seething crowd — but he seemed stunned at how little help he'd received.

"Nothing. I got nothing from the government," he said.

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/08/19/1453185/misery-pours-south-in-pakistan.html#ixzz0x3Xah6NH

As the above article points out, aid has been little and slow to the flood survivors. When the UN General Assembly meets today, Hillary Clinton and Ban Ki Moon will both address the assembly on the need to give money to Pakistan. From the USA Today, Aamer Madhani has this assessment on the arrival of aid.

Raymond Offenheiser, the president of the international relief group Oxfam America, described international and private donors' assistance for Pakistan as "anemic" in the aftermath of the country's worst flooding in 80 years.

The United Nations has collected about half of the $460 million it says it needs to provide food, water and shelter to 6 million Pakistanis.

About 17 million Pakistanis have been affected by the flood, and roadways, homes and billions of dollars of crops have been destroyed.

With heavy rains forecast for the weeks ahead, Offenheiser said Pakistan's plight could become only more complicated in the weeks ahead.

"It really does have the potential of pushing people to migrate into other areas, destabilizing rural populations and leading to violence and struggles over access to basic assets and food in ways that could threaten the Pakistani state," Offenheiser said. "I don't think that's in the interest of any nations in the world. And I think that's on the minds of the people in the administration."
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The United States has stepped up as the most significant donor and has arguably been more effective than the Pakistani government in the relief and rescue operation, experts say.

More than half the food provided to flood victims has been distributed by USAID, and Americans have delivered more than $90 million dollars in aid to Pakistan, according to the State Department. The World Bank has pledged $900 million to help rebuild Pakistan.

We thank the Oxfam twitter feed for the RTs.

Video: Concern Worldwide aid distribution in Pakistan

From Concern Worldwide, this video shows aid being distributed to the flood survivors in Pakistan.

An ambitious plan to turn African city into the shape of a rhino

Southern Sudan is about to hold a referendum to try to achieve independence from the north. The January referendum is expected to pass and will soon create the world's newest country. Already the future government has plans to design the cities that is drawing criticism and laughs.

Southern Sudan hopes to reshape the cities to look like animals from above. The 10 billion dollar project is more than the new country's planned budget of 1.9 billion. The strange designs and plans come despite a lack of basic services to the people like water and roads.

From this Associated Press article that we found at Google News, writer Maggie Fick talks about this strange concept.

The $10 billion concept will take decades to carry out, officials concede, though it may never escape the planning stages. The southern government's own 2010 budget was only $1.9 billion, and the U.N. says more than 90 percent of Southern Sudan's population lives on less than $1 a day.

The plans have evoked bemused smiles — or outright laughter — in Juba, a town that until two years ago barely had any paved roads.

"It doesn't seem like the (Government of Southern Sudan) should be using its resources or staff time when the people of Southern Sudan lack basic services like health care and water," Nora Petty, an aid worker in Juba with the Malaria Consortium.

Government officials concede that a lot of money is needed to finance the project, which includes a plan to transform two state capitals into the shapes of a giraffe and a pineapple.

Juba — the capital of Southern Sudan — is to be reshaped into a compact rhino with two pointy horns. The new area will be called "Rhino City."

Officials said the plan would bring order to the city's chaotic layout.

"Juba is made up of slums," said Jemma Kumba, the minister of housing and physical planning.
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If the animal-shaped towns come to be, they will join other famously shaped cities around the world. Dubai created several palm-shaped residential islands off its coast. In Argentina, planners shaped the town of Ciudad Evita into the form of Eva Peron, an actress and wife of former President Juan Peron who was known as Evita.

Of course, per capita income in the United Arab Emirates, where Dubai is located, is around $42,000 a year. In Sudan, it's just $2,300.

Documents show a lack of transparency from USAid

A simple Freedom of Information request has turned into a stunning revelation of a lack of transparency from US Aid as several well known charities.

Till Bruckner of the Transparency International asked for information on US Aid expenditures in the Republic of Georgia. Instead of a transparent documents showing how money is spent, Till instead received documents with many blacked out pages. Some of what was blacked out detailed money granted to well known NGOs like World Vision, CARE and CNFA.

From his Aid Watch blog post, Till Buckner gives this run down on who had nothing to hide and who did not.

Perhaps surprisingly, the United Nations showed the highest consistent commitment to transparency. The budgets of the two UN agencies funded by USAID are both reproduced in full.

UMCOR, Mercy Corps, and AIHA emerge as the most transparent NGOs. These charities apparently felt that they had nothing to hide, and did not request USAID to black out any of the information contained in their budgets.

In contrast, Save the Children apparently asked USAID to withhold all information related to salaries. As even the aggregate subtotals for international and national staff have been blacked out, concerns about the privacy of individual staff members cannot have been the sole concern driving the organization’s response. Still, the fact that all non-salary related budget lines remain visible put Save the Children in the middle ground in terms of NGO transparency.

CARE’s response is harder to interpret as USAID inexplicably sent only an aggregated “summary budget” that leaves little to conceal. What information exists shows that CARE did not object to the release of unit prices for supplementary food items, or of aggregated staff and operational support costs. In contrast, CARE appears to regard its “indirect cost rate” and “cost share” as confidential. To hide this information, USAID also had to black out the budget’s bottom line, thus leaving unclear how many taxpayer dollars were handed over in total.

The least transparent NGOs in this test are CNFA, World Vision, and Counterpart International. They apparently requested that USAID black out all information in their budgets except for the grand total. Apparently, these NGOs consider budget items such as “office furniture” (CNFA), “visibility items (t-shirts, caps, publications)” (World Vision) and “forklift expenses” (Counterpart) as confidential information whose release could cause them substantial competitive harm.

Video: One in ten Iowans need food stamps

From KCRG, this video shows an increasing number of Iowans looking to food stamps to feed their families.

Video: White South Africans in poverty

From Reuters, this video shows the growing numbers of white South Africans who live in poverty.

A problem with stats to be addressed at UNICEF

Statistics that tell you that poverty dropped by a percentage can tell an incomplete story. Even though a country can improve on average, there could still be some remote villages, or forgotten neighborhoods that didn't see any improvement. New executive director of UNICEF, William Anthony Kirsopp Lake, hopes to straighten out these inequalities during his tenure.

From the Huffington Post, reporter Evelyn Leopold obtained this interview with Lake.

"We are working very hard now on reviewing our programs throughout the organization to see if we can refocus with a greater priority on getting into the toughest neighborhoods in the cities and the farthest communities to try to reduce those disparities," Lake said in an interview, his first since taking office in May.

In measuring child mortality, Lake said as an example of "equity" issues, you get different answers depending on the analysis. He pulled out maps of Brazil, a middle-income country, which he said could be maps for any country in Africa or in south Asia. If you look at the country's average mortality for children under 5 years old, Brazil has a low rate -- fewer than 17 per 1,000 live births. If the map is broken down by pockets of deprivation, the death rate would be double.

"If we focus on averaging alone, we could easily miss all the work that needs to be done and result in an 'easy win' rather than finding the forgotten children," Lake said. "I am convinced that this is not only the right thing in moral terms but also the right thing in practical terms."

UNICEF, the world's largest provider of vaccines in developing nations, supports child health, nutrition clean water and sanitation and basic education in more than 150 countries -- including Pakistan, which this month is occupying the agency.

The agency says that 6 million children have been affected by the deadly floods with 2.7 million children urgently in need of life-saving equipment. At this stage, UNICEF is helping the government help provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene in an effort to prevent major outbreaks of water-borne diseases (cholera, scabies, diarrhea).

eBay founder to invest in more Indian social businesses

A non-profit venture fund set up by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar plans on spending more money in India. Pierre Omidyar and his Omidyar Network invests in companies that provide solutions or products that can improve the lives of the poor.

Similar to the Acumen Fund, Omidyar invests in the companies but doesn't demand a return on the investment. If the investment is successful and the money paid back, the money just gets invested again elsewhere.

From the Wall Street Journal's India Real Time, writer Amol Sharma talks about what Omidyar hopes will come from the investments.

Among the key areas the group plans to target in the future, Mr. Sinha said, are businesses that aim to bring poor people into the banking system, social media enterprises and technologies aimed at making government more transparent. He said the amount Omidyar Network commits will be “driven by opportunities,” but he expects deals worth $100 million to $200 million in five years.

“We’re looking for organizations that are going to have breakthrough impact, and are going to scale and touch millions of lives,” Mr. Sinha told India Real Time.

While in some ways it acts like a venture investor, Omidyar’s funding mechanism is purely philanthropic.

“Basically, we have access to Pierre’s checkbook,” Mr. Sinha said. “We have one source of permanent capital and that’s Pierre’s wealth. He’s very generous.”

That means there’s no time-horizon by which investments need to be made and no venture fund investors demanding a payoff. Profits from any investments—such as the sale of a portfolio company—are re-invested in philanthropic deals.

Mr. Omidyar, the French-born entrepreneur who founded eBay in 1995 and has a net worth estimated at over $5 billion, has become an active philanthropist along with this wife Pam in recent years.

The venture-meets-philanthropy model that Omidyar Network has followed is getting increasingly popular in developing markets. Acumen Fund, which calls itself “a non-profit global venture fund,” has more varied sources of funds than Omidyar’s organization but a similar approach to making investments. It targets sectors such as health, housing, water and energy.

France urged to pay back Haiti

A letter sent to France President Nicolas Sarkozy urges the country to repay a 200 year old debt. When Haiti became independent from France they imposed a payment on Haiti which is now valued at 22 billion dollars. France imposed the payment because they felt they would lose money because their Haitian slaves were now free and would no longer work for France. Haiti was still making payments on this debt in up until 1947.

From Al Jazeera, we find out more about the letter.

Campaigners, including Noam Chomsky, the US linguist, and Naomi Klein, the Canadian author, described the debt as "patently illegitimate ... and illegal".

"The 'independence debt', which is today valued at over 17bn euros illegitimately forced a people who had won their independence in a successful slave revolt, to pay again for the freedom," the letter, published in Britain's Guardian and France's Liberation on Sunday, said.

Haiti launched a lawsuit in 2004 to recover the money, but it was abandoned after France backed the overthrow of Haiti's government.

The letter said such actions were "inappropriate responses to a demand that is morally, economically, and legally unassailable".

"In light of the urgent financial need in the country in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, we urge you to pay Haiti, the world's first black republic, the restitution it is due," it said.

More details on the Niger food crisis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New breakthrough could boost rice yields by 50%

From IRIN, a story about a possible scientific breakthrough that could increase rice yields by 50 percent.

Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) report signs of progress in their efforts to enhance rice's photosynthetic efficiency to boost yields.

If successful, global yields could rise by as much as 50 percent, avoiding potential rice shortages, or even future famines, specialists say.

According to IRRI, a global population increase of some two billion people by 2050 will require an extra 250 million metric tonnes of rice in Asia alone.

"Fifteen months into the project, things are looking positive," Paul Quick, principal scientist and head of IRRI's C4 rice project, told IRIN in Los Banos, the Philippines. "We have identified at least 10 to 15 plant phenotypes that look like the type of plant we are looking for, plants that are starting to show a switch to C4."

C4 plants - such as maize and sorghum - use a much more efficient photosynthesis process than rice (a C3 plant), produce a higher yield and use 1.5-3 times less water, he said.

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the first phase of the 15-year project is focusing on the discovery of the genes required for C4 photosynthesis.

"Achieving this goal will be extremely challenging as many of the processes that need to be changed are poorly understood at the genetic level," Quick said.

Plants typically have more than 30,000 genes so it is not easy to identify which genes are necessary to create the C4 engine. At the same time, thousands of plants need to be grown and screened for errors in their photosynthetic engine.

"It's like making a cake. We still don't know the recipe, but we now have a better idea of what the ingredients are," Jacqueline Dionora, a senior associate scientist for the project said.

New crop strains needed

According to the UN, food production needs to rise by 50 percent by the year 2030 to meet rising demand, fuelled by population growth, competition for water and increasing use of agricultural products for bio-fuels.

"Increased photosynthetic efficiency through the introduction of the C4 photosynthetic pathway is one mechanism by which this can be achieved," Quick said, citing its high light, water and nitrogen use efficiency.

"The C4-Rice project is seen as a high-risk scientific venture but this is nothing compared with the potential future risks to human health if food supply cannot meet demand."

A new study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) - a peer-reviewed, scientific journal from the US - warned that rice production would be affected with rising temperatures due to climate change.

The study by international scientists found evidence that the net impact of projected temperature increases would slow the growth of rice production in Asia. Rising temperatures during the past 25 years have already cut the yield growth rate by 10-20 percent in several areas.

About three billion people eat rice every day, and more than 60 percent of the world's one billion poorest and undernourished people who live in Asia depend on rice as their staple food, according to IRRI.

A decline in rice production would mean more people in poverty and hunger, the report's researchers warned.

"If we cannot change our rice production methods or develop new rice strains that can withstand higher temperatures, there will be a loss in rice production over the next few decades as days and nights get hotter," said Jarrod Welch, lead author of the report.

"This will get increasingly worse as temperatures rise further towards the middle of the century."

On 18 August, scientists will gather in Shanghai for the 15th international congress of photosynthesis research. The three-day meeting will bring together experts from various disciplines of C4 biology, including biochemistry, evolution, genetic regulation, gene discovery, systems modelling and genetic engineering.