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Title - Managing Complexity: Political and Managerial Challenges in United
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Title - Guidelines for Incorportating HIV/AIDS Activities in
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CONTENTS:

1 - AFRICA: Going into debt for health
2 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry
3 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher
4 - NIGER: Late rains put crops at risk
5 - SOMALIA: Mogadishu battle "marks turning point"
6 - SOUTH AFRICA: Storms affect 20,000 people in Cape Town
7 - UGANDA: "Invisible war victims" in the north require urgent attention -
officials

1 - AFRICA: Going into debt for health

DAKAR, 15 July (IRIN) - One in four families living in the world's poorest
countries borrows money or sells assets in order to afford health care,
according to the most recent issue of the US medical journal "Health Affairs".

  The authors calculated almost 26 percent of 3.6 billion surveyed people - most
often the poorest households with little or no health insurance - used "hardship
financing" from 2002 to 2004 to cover health costs.

  Out-of-pocket payments accounted for 70 percent of health payments in
low-income countries compared to less than 15 percent in richer countries,
according to an independent 2007 study of global health insurance programmes.

  Countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa have tried to varying degrees to follow
the author's call for "prepayment mechanisms that reduce (or for the poor,
eliminate) charges at the point of care [to] mitigate the economic risk that
out-of-pocket payments pose for families."

  Liberia

  Widowed after her husband was killed during Liberia's civil war, Mary Dewh, a
39-year-old mother of four, told IRIN she alone covers her family's health care
costs. "When my son was hospitalised with malaria two weeks ago and the bill
came to US$50, I did not have enough money for him to be discharged from the
hospital." She said a neighbour loaned her money so her son could come home.

  In 2007 Liberia tested lifting health care fees for basic care in public health
centres, but Solomon Bah, a doctor in the capital Monrovia told IRIN free care
is not easy to find now in cities.

  "[There is a] little bit of free service in rural communities where people can
not afford [health care]. But that is done on a smaller-scale basis. Patients
are shouldering their own responsibility to settle their medical bills. The
government does not have that much of money to have free medical service for
everyone," said Bah.

  The Ministry of Health is undergoing a national review of user fees.

  Ghana

  Since 2005 the government has introduced a national health insurance programme,
which has enrolled 54 percent of the population as of the end of 2008, according
to the government.

  In a recent independent evaluation of the insurance programme,  60 percent of
those interviewed expressed frustration at delays in enrolment and difficulty
buying medicines at pharmacies under the plan, but all surveyed agreed health
care costs had fallen.

  As of September 2006, only 22 percent of workers in the informal sector had
enrolled, according to the government; Seventy percent of Ghana's work force is
in the informal sector.

  The government announced in early 2009 a "restructuring" of the insurance
programme - which is estimated to cost more than $600 million a year - to
improve claims management, increase medical services for communicable diseases,
improve access to free maternal care and "better respond to the need of the
population".

  Burkina Faso

  Since 2005 the government of Burkina Faso has covered health costs for
under-five children suffering from severe forms of malaria at the cost of almost
$1 million a year, according to Laurent Moyenga who heads the country's national
anti-malarial programme.

  In addition, the country has paid more than US$4 million a year since 2006 to
women giving birth and for newborn care during their first week of life, said
Jeanne Nougtara, the director of family health subsidies in the Ministry of
Health. "We cannot cover all illnesses and believe children are at highest risk
to deadly diseases in their first seven days," Nougtara told IRIN.

  But even with this help, patients are still struggling, said a health employee
from Yalgado Ou�draogo hospital in the capital Ouagadougou, who preferred to
remain anonymous. "Every day patients beg the night guards to let them leave at
night because they fear not having enough money to pay for their hospital stay."

  pt/bo/pc/aj

[ENDS]

2 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry

JOHANNESBURG, 15 July (IRIN) - If the global economy were to rebound in 2010,
sub-Saharan Africa would still be one of the world's poorest and most vulnerable
regions, and have more than half its food insecure people, says an examination
of the impact of the economic slowdown on food security.

  The trade deficits created by the 2008 food price crisis, lagging agricultural
productivity, and political instability in countries like Somalia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo will make it hard for many countries in the region
to recover, said the Food Security Assessment 2008-09  by the US Department of
Agriculture's Economic Research Services (ERS).

  The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which derived the number from
the ERS assessment, said there were now more than a billion people hungry
worldwide.

  With the full effect of the financial downturn difficult to predict, the
assessment developed scenarios for the 70 poorest countries in five regions -
sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a regional organization of former
Soviet republics - taking into account projections by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) in its updated World Economic Outlook in January 2009.

  In the first scenario the ERS projects a drop in export earnings, affecting a
country's capacity to import and bringing a decline in food consumption. The dip
in export earnings reflects regional declines in economic growth projected by
the IMF: 50 percent in decline in export growth in North Africa and sub-Saharan
Africa, 40 percent in Asia, 60 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and
in the CIS.

  In the second scenario, a 50 percent slump in the capital inflows that finance
imports is added to the factors in the first scenario. A third scenario looked
at the impact of the slowdown if a full economic recovery were to take place in
the rest of the world in 2010.

  Sub-Saharan Africa

  Though sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 25 percent of the population in the
70 countries, it has 47 percent of the food-insecure people, the assessment
noted.

  The region has become increasingly dependent on cereal imports, which have
risen from around 10 percent of its supplies in the late 1980s to more than 20
percent at present. "Therefore, when international [cereal] prices rise, the
ability to import is likely to fall, given the limited financial capacity of the
region."

  A drop in export earnings, as in the first scenario, would bring a three
percent rise in the number of food insecure. Among the worst affected would be
countries that have done well economically in recent years such as Angola, which
has benefited from high oil prices.

  In the second scenario, which takes financial inflows into account, the number
of food-insecure people in the region would increase by nine percent, or 36
million.

  Cape Verde, C�te d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Mauritania and Senegal are experiencing
rising food insecurity because of their growing dependence on imports, while in
Eritrea, Somalia and Sierra Leone, which are highly dependent on foreign aid,
food insecurity is likely to deepen.

  Sub-Saharan Africa's share of food aid has grown "from roughly a third to well
over half" of the world total since 1999, noted the assessment.

  Asia

  Asia is the region least dependent on food imports, and its food-security
situation was "good, in relative terms". However, a decline export earnings
would affect food security in the region "deeply, with the number of
food-insecure people increasing by 11 percent. This comes after the Asian
countries experienced the highest export growth relative to other regions (over
10 percent per year since 2000)".

  If there is a decline in export growth and a cutback in net capital inflows,
the number of food-insecure people in Asia is projected to increase by 13
percent in 2009 - relative to the food-security baseline - driven by the impact
of the economic shock in Bangladesh and the Philippines.

  Despite its economic strides, a drop in capital inflows into Bangladesh would
leave 40 percent of its more than 153 million people food insecure; in the
Philippines the number of hungry could jump to around 20 percent of the
population of more than 96 million.

  The food security outlook in Asia over the next 10 years shows that just over
20 percent of this region's population would be food insecure, largely because
of an expected slowdown in population growth.

  "After averaging two percent per year throughout the 1990s, Asia's population
growth is projected to slow to about 1.4 percent per year through the next
decade, thereby reducing pressure on resources," the assessment noted. The food
security situation in India, the world's second most populous country, is
expected to improve.

  jk/he[ENDS]

3 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher

DAKAR, 15 July (IRIN) - Since the Sphere Project first published in 2000 its
handbook outlining minimum standards in disaster response, much has changed in
the aid world. Climate change is the new disaster, humanitarian reforms have
reorganized the aid system introducing cluster leads for emergency sectors, and
millions more disaster-affected people live in towns rather than rural areas.

The Sphere Project, a collaboration of international NGOs and the Red Cross
Movement to improve quality disaster responses, is updating its handbook
outlining best practices in food aid, nutrition, health, water and sanitation
and emergency shelter.

The updated guide, known as the Sphere handbook, will reflect the increasing
complexity of the aid world and more explicitly address civil-military
relations, disaster risk reduction and early recovery, environmental impact,
psychosocial support and the role of cluster leads in humanitarian response.

Nine disaster response sectors - among them education, protection, and early
recovery - are headed up by either UN agency or NGO cluster leads to help
provide more coherent, coordinated emergency interventions.

Despite an increasingly crowded market-place of new aid quality guidelines and
best practices, Adam Poulter, head of the humanitarian team at NGO Care
International, told IRIN that Sphere still stands out. "The Sphere handbook is a
bit like the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".if you are starting afresh on a
sector and need some guidance, use Sphere. It is an all-in-one book and you can
travel with it."

The new handbook, expected to be published in 2010, will provide links to more
in-depth companion guides in a number of sectors, including livelihoods and
emergency education, and to other quality standards such as the Humanitarian
Accountability Project's  Sphere project manager John Damerell told IRIN.

Humanitarian cluster leads are now charged with developing standards and
guidelines in their sectors' disaster response - be it shelter or protection.
But Graham Saunders, international shelter head for the International Federation
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), told IRIN this is a complementary
rather than competitive process.

"Sphere is the starting point, it's the 'what', while the clusters can provide
the 'how-to'."

The IFRC also heads the international emergency shelter cluster. Saunders is one
of 22 experts consulting on Sphere's revisions.

Creating ambitious new standards while keeping the handbook short is a
challenge, said Saunders."It is always going to be a dilemma to provide simple,
consistent, clear, concise yet comprehensive guidelines, but we must try."

Realistic?

Equally challenging is maintaining such standards when there is inadequate
funding, access difficulties, resource limitations, and other barriers,
according to aid workers.

Ensuring no queues at water sources last more than 15 minutes, one of the
current Sphere standards, have rarely been met in camps in Darfur or eastern
Chad, aid workers told IRIN.

"This issue comes up all the time," said IFRC's Saunders. "But there is no value
in having standards that are bad practice - we don't need the lowest common
denominator," he told IRIN.

He added: "Denying people 3.5m2 of covered living space can compromise safe
separation of the sexes, which means a women's shelter might have to be built,
or it could lead to higher transmission of respiratory infections, requiring
more frequent health check-up visits."

Saunders told IRIN the guidelines are a tool to be adapted to each context, and
stressed the revised handbook should give better guidance on how to do this.

"If the standards are not met, there will always be other consequences. The
problems don't go away.if you can't meet the standards you don't give up,"
Saunders said.

aj/pt

[ENDS]

4 - NIGER: Late rains put crops at risk

NIAMEY, 15 July (IRIN) - Low rainfall has disrupted the planting season
throughout Niger as farmers who sowed seeds in May are forced to replant when
their first crops died, according to the national association of farmers.

"There are real concerns with the planting season this year," the association's
coordinator, Djibo Bagna, told IRIN.

Idrissa Halidou in the semi-arid village of Torodi near the border with Burkina
Faso told IRIN he lost his first planting. "We had planted in May, but lack of
rains forced us to plant again."

Halidou told IRIN he is "tapping into his cereal stock to face the lean season."

The period between plantings and harvests typically lasts from June to
September.

Nationwide, almost 8,000 out of 11,000 villages had reported to the government
first plantings by 30 June.

In 2009 late rains have resulted in "plants withering in dry pockets.in certain
localities, especially during the first 20 days in May", according to the
government's 30 June inter-ministerial report on rain and agriculture, which
characterized rainfall in most parts of Niger as "weak to moderate".

The national farmer association's Bagna said in some regions at this time last
year, crops had already begun to grow.

Farmers in Diffa, a commune in the southeast, told IRIN the first rain of the
season arrived on 14 July, a month later than in 2008.

Delayed rains have resulted in pastures that are "progressively degrading in
quality", causing pastoralists to seek rain-fed pastures elsewhere for their
animals. The most affected areas are Diffa and Maradi in the south, according to
the government's 10 July rain report.

Late rains coincide with rising food prices, according to the government's
weekly system of information on agricultural markets (SIMA), which reported that
as of the first week of July, the prices of millet and maize were three percent
higher than the previous week, while sorghum was five percent more expensive -
costing up to US$42 for 100kg.

Prices for millet, sorghum, rice and maize are up to six percent higher than
this time last year, according to the government's price index.

pt/aj

[ENDS]

5 - SOMALIA: Mogadishu battle "marks turning point"

NAIROBI, 15 July (IRIN) - Al-Shabab, Somalia's Islamist opposition group, has
suffered its first serious military setback in fighting in the capital,
Mogadishu, giving the government a much-needed morale boost, say analysts.

  "Whether the tide has turned against them is too early to tell but they have
taken a beating [in fighting on 12 July]," a Somali observer, who requested
anonymity, said.

  Clashes between the Islamist insurgents and the forces of President Sheikh
Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, backed by African Union (AU) peacekeeping troops, known as
AMISOM, reportedly left at least 51 people dead and injured 212, locals said.

  "Most of those who died [on 12 July] were combatants," Ali Sheikh Yassin,
deputy chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organization, told
IRIN.

  Other sources said the insurgents lost significant territory. "They have been
pushed from a number of neighbourhoods in north Mogadishu which they had
controlled," said one.

  "Silver lining"

  The Somali observer said groups such as Al-Shabab were not known to care how
many [fighters] they lost in a given battle, but the setback may have "a silver
lining to bring to the fore differences of strategy and approach within them and
between them and their allies Hisbul-Islami [led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a
former ally of President Ahmed]".

  The observer said some parts of the opposition had argued that since they
controlled most of the country, the fighting should stop to allow people to
return home.

  "This group favours dialogue with the government from a position of strength,"
he said, adding that "there are some who even want to talk, not only to the
government, but to the international community".

  The more radical elements insist they could remove the government by force
"within days".

  "Sunday [12 July] reinforces the position of those who favour some sort of
dialogue," the observer said. "How the government uses this opportunity is a
different matter."

  He said if the government were to take advantage of the opposition's setback it
needed to put its house in order. "The first it [the government] must do is
bring its forces under one command. There are at least three or four militia
fighting on the government side with no central command."

  The government must also restart dialogue with those in the opposition willing
to talk, he added.

  Labour Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir, who is also acting Minister of Information,
said the government "never wanted more fighting but was forced into it. While
[Sunday's] fighting was regrettable, it was necessary. For over two months, we
have been under attack. We must deal with these anti-peace elements."

  Jaw-jaw not war-war

  However, Hayir said the government would still pursue reconciliation.

  "We are still open to dialogue with those willing to talk," he said. "Any
grievances they have can be and should be resolved through dialogue. We are
hopeful that after Sunday many will realize they will never achieve anything
through the barrel of the gun.

  "This was an opportunity for them [some of the opposition] to re-evaluate their
positions."

  However, Timothy Othieno, a regional analyst at the London-based Overseas
Development Institute, told IRIN the fighting and reported capture of foreign
combatants "may not drastically change the situation".

  He said the reported involvement of AU troops could complicate "AMISOM's
position as an impartial player in Somalia and it will be interesting to see how
they [AMISOM] rectify their position".

  Othieno said there was always a question over AMISOM's neutrality and it was
just a matter of time before it was drawn into the war with the militant groups.

  "Therefore, this latest situation does actually highlight the precarious
position AMISOM peacekeepers in Somalia find themselves in," he added.

  However, a Somali journalist in Mogadishu said the fighting was "a turning
point for AMISOM, the government and the insurgents".

  For the government, the journalist said, AMISOM's involvement showed that with
a little help, "they can actually push back these guys [Al-Shabab]", adding that
Al-Shabab now knows that "the international community was serious when it said
it will support the government".

  He added: "I think there is going to be a lot of re-evaluation by all sides."

  ah/mw/oa[ENDS]

6 - SOUTH AFRICA: Storms affect 20,000 people in Cape Town

JOHANNESBURG, 15 July (IRIN) - More than 20,000 residents in 63 informal
settlements in the South African port city of Cape Town have been affected by
severe winter storms.

  Charlotte Powell, spokesperson for the city's Disaster Risk Management
department, told IRIN: "The whole environment is wet."

  She said the city had established six emergency shelters to provide hot meals
and disburse humanitarian assistance, such as blankets, non-perishable foods and
baby formula, after an appeal to Cape Town's residents for donations.

  Unlike much of South Africa, Cape Town experiences its main rainfall during the
winter months from May to September, while rapid urbanization has resulted in
the establishment of informal settlements on land that is often unsuitable.

  Powell said people arriving in the city during the summer months, when rainfall
is low, were often not aware until the winter months that they had built
rudimentary shelters on water courses or wetlands, which were prone to flooding.

  The weather forecast for the next few days is that the rain will stop, followed
by clear skies and low temperatures.

  go/he[ENDS]

7 - UGANDA: "Invisible war victims" in the north require urgent attention -
officials

KAMPALA, 15 July (IRIN) - The elderly, orphans and very sick are Uganda's
"invisible war victims" who urgently need help to transit from life in the
internally displaced people's camps to a normal existence, officials said on 14
July.

  Norbert Mao, Gulu district council chairman, told IRIN the decline in the
financial commitment to the peace, recovery and development plan - designed to
re-ignite progress at community and local government level in the region - had
made the transition from emergency to recovery difficult for the vulnerable in
IDP camps.

  "The old, the orphans and the terminally ill are stuck in camps and as other
people have ventured out to go back home, they cannot return and their rights
over many issues are compromised. They require [a] big investment from the
international community to help them return home," Mao said by telephone from
Gulu, which was the epicentre of two decades of war between government forces
and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.

  His comments coincided with a visit by Walter Kaelin, representative of the UN
Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), to
northern Uganda to talk to IDPs and communities that have returned home about
their challenges.

  Kaelin met government stakeholders at central and district level, as well as UN
and other international organizations, the World Bank and donors.

  Okot Ogong, who heads a parliamentary group of legislators from the affected
region, told IRIN: "These people have returned but they are without any support.
Their right to food is gravely undermined because they did not get enough seeds,
while many are not getting security because the police are sparsely deployed;
most water points were destroyed or not in place in many areas.

  "Education is in shambles as there are no teachers and no classrooms, while
parents cannot afford secondary education for their children."

  Mao proposes that the bulk of the more than US$600 million three-year
government recovery package for the region should be spent in the first year if
it is to have any impact on the ground.

  "If we upload much of the package in the first year it will have a dramatic
impact. But so far it is still [vague] and there is no transparency as to who
will do or is willing to do what," he said.

  This financial year, the government has committed some 100 billion shillings
($48 million) to the recovery package.

  vm/mw[ENDS]

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Please find below a selection of news stories related to the World Bank and IMF
of the past week, brought to you by the Bretton Woods Project.

*NOTICE* the Bretton Woods Project has just released the latest edition of the
Bretton Woods Update (No.66 June/July 2008). To read our latest analysis of news
related to the IFIs see:
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/update/66/index.shtml

News stories we added in the previous seven days:

World Bank volte-face on finance and development?
http://political-finance.blogspot.com/2009/07/world-bank-volte-face-on-finance-a\
nd.html
Political Finance, 15 July 2009

Latvia PM says talks with IMF tough
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8608441
Reuters, 15 July 2009

Latvia to cut government staff drastically to meet IMF conditions
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/07/14/ap6651811.html
Associated Press, 14 July 2009

China airs views on monetary reform but no big stir at G8 summit
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE5691G520090710?sp=true
Reuters, 10 July 2009

IMF rules the roost in Pakistan
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/1\
0-Jul-2009/IMF-rules-the-roost
The Nation, 10 July 2009

US Congress overwhelmingly rejects watering down their authority over IFI policy
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-overwhelming-rebukes-obama-signing-sta\
tement-2009-07-09.html
The Hill, 9 July 2009

----------------------

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CONTENTS:

1 - AFGHANISTAN: Unsafe housing puts Kabul residents at risk
2 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry
3 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher
4 - MYANMAR: Lack of care for landmine victims

1 - AFGHANISTAN: Unsafe housing puts Kabul residents at risk

KABUL, 15 July (IRIN) - Most people in the Afghan capital Kabul live in illegal,
unplanned and sub-standard houses that are prone to natural disasters and lack
water and sanitation facilities, according to government officials.

  "Of the [estimated] five million people currently living in Kabul, at least
three million are residing in illegal and unplanned houses," Abdul Wahab Sadaat,
deputy director of city services at the Kabul Municipality, told IRIN.

  "These houses - which make up about 75 percent of the houses in Kabul - are
also vulnerable to earthquake, floods and other natural disasters," said Sadaat.

  Over the past seven years some militia commanders and powerful groups have
seized and sold public property and land, creating a crisis of unregulated
urbanization in the capital, officials in the municipality and in the Ministry
of Urban Development said.

  The rapid and mostly unplanned urbanization in Kabul has brought about serious
environmental, health and social problems
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75508].

  The population of Kabul has grown substantially, from about one million in 2001
to about five million in 2009, exhausting the city's already limited natural
resources, particularly underground water reserves, say government and
independent specialists.

  "Should the use of underground water continue at its current pace, by 2020 the
capital will suffer a serious water shortage," said Noor Ahmad Jawad, a
meteorologist at Kabul University.

  Meanwhile, many of the mushrooming squatter communities lack water, proper
sanitation and health facilities, while waste management in Kabul is becoming a
major concern [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73691].

  Rapid population growth and urbanization, coupled with limited resources, have
put a heavy burden on Kabul's environment and air quality which, according to
health officials, hastens the death of more than 3,000 people annually
[http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82639].

  "Greater Kabul"

  Officials privately concede they are unable to resolve the crisis of illegal
houses in Kabul because of the magnitude of the problem involving millions of
people and the involvement of influential individuals who have profited from
unregulated urbanization.

  Instead, the government and several private companies have drawn up plans for a
"Greater Kabul", which is expected to be built on 740 sqkm to the northeast of
the city in the next 15-20 years.

  "The new, greater Kabul plan addresses all the shortages and problems which we
currently have in Kabul city," said Sadaat.

  The new city, which will accommodate 1.5 million people initially and three
million in the long run, will require US$35.5 billion over 16 years, of which
$24 billion should come from the private sector and $11.5 billion from the
government and donors, according to officials.

  The population in Kabul is predicted to surpass eight million by 2025.

  The new city looks good on the map, but specialists question whether the people
who have built illegal and sub-standard houses in Kabul will be willing or able
to pay for new houses in the greater Kabul.

  ad/at/mw

[ENDS]

2 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry

JOHANNESBURG, 15 July (IRIN) - If the global economy were to rebound in 2010,
sub-Saharan Africa would still be one of the world's poorest and most vulnerable
regions, and have more than half its food insecure people, says an examination
of the impact of the economic slowdown on food security.

  The trade deficits created by the 2008 food price crisis, lagging agricultural
productivity, and political instability in countries like Somalia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo will make it hard for many countries in the region
to recover, said the Food Security Assessment 2008-09  by the US Department of
Agriculture's Economic Research Services (ERS).

  The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which derived the number from
the ERS assessment, said there were now more than a billion people hungry
worldwide.

  With the full effect of the financial downturn difficult to predict, the
assessment developed scenarios for the 70 poorest countries in five regions -
sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a regional organization of former
Soviet republics - taking into account projections by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) in its updated World Economic Outlook in January 2009.

  In the first scenario the ERS projects a drop in export earnings, affecting a
country's capacity to import and bringing a decline in food consumption. The dip
in export earnings reflects regional declines in economic growth projected by
the IMF: 50 percent in decline in export growth in North Africa and sub-Saharan
Africa, 40 percent in Asia, 60 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and
in the CIS.

  In the second scenario, a 50 percent slump in the capital inflows that finance
imports is added to the factors in the first scenario. A third scenario looked
at the impact of the slowdown if a full economic recovery were to take place in
the rest of the world in 2010.

  Sub-Saharan Africa

  Though sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 25 percent of the population in the
70 countries, it has 47 percent of the food-insecure people, the assessment
noted.

  The region has become increasingly dependent on cereal imports, which have
risen from around 10 percent of its supplies in the late 1980s to more than 20
percent at present. "Therefore, when international [cereal] prices rise, the
ability to import is likely to fall, given the limited financial capacity of the
region."

  A drop in export earnings, as in the first scenario, would bring a three
percent rise in the number of food insecure. Among the worst affected would be
countries that have done well economically in recent years such as Angola, which
has benefited from high oil prices.

  In the second scenario, which takes financial inflows into account, the number
of food-insecure people in the region would increase by nine percent, or 36
million.

  Cape Verde, C�te d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Mauritania and Senegal are experiencing
rising food insecurity because of their growing dependence on imports, while in
Eritrea, Somalia and Sierra Leone, which are highly dependent on foreign aid,
food insecurity is likely to deepen.

  Sub-Saharan Africa's share of food aid has grown "from roughly a third to well
over half" of the world total since 1999, noted the assessment.

  Asia

  Asia is the region least dependent on food imports, and its food-security
situation was "good, in relative terms". However, a decline export earnings
would affect food security in the region "deeply, with the number of
food-insecure people increasing by 11 percent. This comes after the Asian
countries experienced the highest export growth relative to other regions (over
10 percent per year since 2000)".

  If there is a decline in export growth and a cutback in net capital inflows,
the number of food-insecure people in Asia is projected to increase by 13
percent in 2009 - relative to the food-security baseline - driven by the impact
of the economic shock in Bangladesh and the Philippines.

  Despite its economic strides, a drop in capital inflows into Bangladesh would
leave 40 percent of its more than 153 million people food insecure; in the
Philippines the number of hungry could jump to around 20 percent of the
population of more than 96 million.

  The food security outlook in Asia over the next 10 years shows that just over
20 percent of this region's population would be food insecure, largely because
of an expected slowdown in population growth.

  "After averaging two percent per year throughout the 1990s, Asia's population
growth is projected to slow to about 1.4 percent per year through the next
decade, thereby reducing pressure on resources," the assessment noted. The food
security situation in India, the world's second most populous country, is
expected to improve.

  jk/he[ENDS]

3 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher

DAKAR, 15 July (IRIN) - Since the Sphere Project first published in 2000 its
handbook outlining minimum standards in disaster response, much has changed in
the aid world. Climate change is the new disaster, humanitarian reforms have
reorganized the aid system introducing cluster leads for emergency sectors, and
millions more disaster-affected people live in towns rather than rural areas.

The Sphere Project, a collaboration of international NGOs and the Red Cross
Movement to improve quality disaster responses, is updating its handbook
outlining best practices in food aid, nutrition, health, water and sanitation
and emergency shelter.

The updated guide, known as the Sphere handbook, will reflect the increasing
complexity of the aid world and more explicitly address civil-military
relations, disaster risk reduction and early recovery, environmental impact,
psychosocial support and the role of cluster leads in humanitarian response.

Nine disaster response sectors - among them education, protection, and early
recovery - are headed up by either UN agency or NGO cluster leads to help
provide more coherent, coordinated emergency interventions.

Despite an increasingly crowded market-place of new aid quality guidelines and
best practices, Adam Poulter, head of the humanitarian team at NGO Care
International, told IRIN that Sphere still stands out. "The Sphere handbook is a
bit like the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".if you are starting afresh on a
sector and need some guidance, use Sphere. It is an all-in-one book and you can
travel with it."

The new handbook, expected to be published in 2010, will provide links to more
in-depth companion guides in a number of sectors, including livelihoods and
emergency education, and to other quality standards such as the Humanitarian
Accountability Project's  Sphere project manager John Damerell told IRIN.

Humanitarian cluster leads are now charged with developing standards and
guidelines in their sectors' disaster response - be it shelter or protection.
But Graham Saunders, international shelter head for the International Federation
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), told IRIN this is a complementary
rather than competitive process.

"Sphere is the starting point, it's the 'what', while the clusters can provide
the 'how-to'."

The IFRC also heads the international emergency shelter cluster. Saunders is one
of 22 experts consulting on Sphere's revisions.

Creating ambitious new standards while keeping the handbook short is a
challenge, said Saunders."It is always going to be a dilemma to provide simple,
consistent, clear, concise yet comprehensive guidelines, but we must try."

Realistic?

Equally challenging is maintaining such standards when there is inadequate
funding, access difficulties, resource limitations, and other barriers,
according to aid workers.

Ensuring no queues at water sources last more than 15 minutes, one of the
current Sphere standards, have rarely been met in camps in Darfur or eastern
Chad, aid workers told IRIN.

"This issue comes up all the time," said IFRC's Saunders. "But there is no value
in having standards that are bad practice - we don't need the lowest common
denominator," he told IRIN.

He added: "Denying people 3.5m2 of covered living space can compromise safe
separation of the sexes, which means a women's shelter might have to be built,
or it could lead to higher transmission of respiratory infections, requiring
more frequent health check-up visits."

Saunders told IRIN the guidelines are a tool to be adapted to each context, and
stressed the revised handbook should give better guidance on how to do this.

"If the standards are not met, there will always be other consequences. The
problems don't go away.if you can't meet the standards you don't give up,"
Saunders said.

aj/pt

[ENDS]

4 - MYANMAR: Lack of care for landmine victims

YANGON, 15 July (IRIN) - Hundreds of landmine victims every year never receive
adequate rehabilitation assistance, according to the International Campaign to
Ban Landmines (ICBL).

  While there are no exact figures, the group says the numbers are "substantial".
Myanmar is second only to Afghanistan in terms of landmine casualties in Asia.

  NGOs believe the casualty figures over the past five to six years have been
increasing.

  "The landmine problem in Burma is alarming," Afredo Ferrariz Lubang, regional
representative for the NGO Nonviolence International in Bangkok told IRIN,
citing at least one case a day.

  "Not only does it pose a threat but it is crippling Burma's future on a daily
basis," he said.

  Access to services remains "inadequate", ICBL said.

  Widespread use

  Landmines have long been used along the borders with Thailand and Bangladesh
where Myanmar's government has been battling armed rebel groups.

  In December, ICBL reported widespread landmine use in Karen, Karenni, Rakhine
and Shan States and the Tenaserrim and Pegu Divisions.

  In addition to domestically produced mines, Myanmar has also obtained and used
Chinese, Indian, Italian, Soviet and US-manufactured mines, ICBL says.

  "The Burma army continues to use landmines. Not only on the border with
Thailand, but all over the Karen, Karenni and Shan states of eastern Burma,"
David Eubank, director of the Free Burma Rangers, an organisation providing
medical and other assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs), told IRIN
from Chiang Mai, Thailand.

  Some reports suggest that prisoners have been forced to assist in mine-clearing
efforts, while Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the government of planting
mines around rice crops in areas cleared by the military during
counter-insurgency operations.

  "It's a fairly common practice - particularly in conflict areas in Karen
state," David Scott Mathieson, Burma researcher for HRW told IRIN from the Thai
border town of Mae Sot. "The idea is to deter civilians from returning to their
villages to collect their belongings or tend their crops."

  Despite reporting difficulties, some 438 casualties were recorded in 2007
compared with 243 in 2006, Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan, research coordinator for the
Landmine Monitor, which provides research to ICBL, told IRIN. "That's an 80
percent increase."

  Of those injured in 2007, the latest figures available, 47 people died, up from
20 deaths in 2006 - although those numbers are also not conclusive.

  Access to services

  In 2007, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stopped assisting
three physical rehabilitation centres run by the Ministry of Health and three
centres run by the Ministry of Defence.

  It continues, however, to support the Myanmar Red Cross's outreach prosthetic
programme in the southeast, the area worst affected by landmines.

  According to ICRC's annual report for 2008, 223 amputees who might otherwise
have been unable to travel were helped to the Hpa-an centre to receive
appropriate care.

  In 2008, 5,419 patients (including 694 women and 371 children) received help at
the ICRC-supported physical rehabilitation centre, including 1,031 new patients
(including 69 women and 30 children).

  While prosthetic limbs are available to refugees along the Thai border at
refugee camps and at the Mao Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, as well as through Thai
hospitals, for those inside the country, access remains poor.

  Limited service is available on the Bangladesh and Indian borders.

  Myanmar's government remains one of more than 30 countries in the world that
has not signed up to the 1997 Ottawa Convention, an international agreement
banning the use of anti-personnel mines.

  contributor/ds/mw

[ENDS]

Free humanitarian photos for non-profits: http://www.irinnews.org/photo.aspx

� IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
http://www.irinnews.org

[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions
expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member
States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes
is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx

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CONTENTS:

1 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry
2 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher

1 - GLOBAL: Less money, less food, more hungry

JOHANNESBURG, 15 July (IRIN) - If the global economy were to rebound in 2010,
sub-Saharan Africa would still be one of the world's poorest and most vulnerable
regions, and have more than half its food insecure people, says an examination
of the impact of the economic slowdown on food security.

  The trade deficits created by the 2008 food price crisis, lagging agricultural
productivity, and political instability in countries like Somalia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo will make it hard for many countries in the region
to recover, said the Food Security Assessment 2008-09  by the US Department of
Agriculture's Economic Research Services (ERS).

  The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which derived the number from
the ERS assessment, said there were now more than a billion people hungry
worldwide.

  With the full effect of the financial downturn difficult to predict, the
assessment developed scenarios for the 70 poorest countries in five regions -
sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a regional organization of former
Soviet republics - taking into account projections by the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) in its updated World Economic Outlook in January 2009.

  In the first scenario the ERS projects a drop in export earnings, affecting a
country's capacity to import and bringing a decline in food consumption. The dip
in export earnings reflects regional declines in economic growth projected by
the IMF: 50 percent in decline in export growth in North Africa and sub-Saharan
Africa, 40 percent in Asia, 60 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and
in the CIS.

  In the second scenario, a 50 percent slump in the capital inflows that finance
imports is added to the factors in the first scenario. A third scenario looked
at the impact of the slowdown if a full economic recovery were to take place in
the rest of the world in 2010.

  Sub-Saharan Africa

  Though sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 25 percent of the population in the
70 countries, it has 47 percent of the food-insecure people, the assessment
noted.

  The region has become increasingly dependent on cereal imports, which have
risen from around 10 percent of its supplies in the late 1980s to more than 20
percent at present. "Therefore, when international [cereal] prices rise, the
ability to import is likely to fall, given the limited financial capacity of the
region."

  A drop in export earnings, as in the first scenario, would bring a three
percent rise in the number of food insecure. Among the worst affected would be
countries that have done well economically in recent years such as Angola, which
has benefited from high oil prices.

  In the second scenario, which takes financial inflows into account, the number
of food-insecure people in the region would increase by nine percent, or 36
million.

  Cape Verde, C�te d'Ivoire, Lesotho, Mauritania and Senegal are experiencing
rising food insecurity because of their growing dependence on imports, while in
Eritrea, Somalia and Sierra Leone, which are highly dependent on foreign aid,
food insecurity is likely to deepen.

  Sub-Saharan Africa's share of food aid has grown "from roughly a third to well
over half" of the world total since 1999, noted the assessment.

  Asia

  Asia is the region least dependent on food imports, and its food-security
situation was "good, in relative terms". However, a decline export earnings
would affect food security in the region "deeply, with the number of
food-insecure people increasing by 11 percent. This comes after the Asian
countries experienced the highest export growth relative to other regions (over
10 percent per year since 2000)".

  If there is a decline in export growth and a cutback in net capital inflows,
the number of food-insecure people in Asia is projected to increase by 13
percent in 2009 - relative to the food-security baseline - driven by the impact
of the economic shock in Bangladesh and the Philippines.

  Despite its economic strides, a drop in capital inflows into Bangladesh would
leave 40 percent of its more than 153 million people food insecure; in the
Philippines the number of hungry could jump to around 20 percent of the
population of more than 96 million.

  The food security outlook in Asia over the next 10 years shows that just over
20 percent of this region's population would be food insecure, largely because
of an expected slowdown in population growth.

  "After averaging two percent per year throughout the 1990s, Asia's population
growth is projected to slow to about 1.4 percent per year through the next
decade, thereby reducing pressure on resources," the assessment noted. The food
security situation in India, the world's second most populous country, is
expected to improve.

  jk/he[ENDS]

2 - GLOBAL: Setting the aid bar higher

DAKAR, 15 July (IRIN) - Since the Sphere Project first published in 2000 its
handbook outlining minimum standards in disaster response, much has changed in
the aid world. Climate change is the new disaster, humanitarian reforms have
reorganized the aid system introducing cluster leads for emergency sectors, and
millions more disaster-affected people live in towns rather than rural areas.

The Sphere Project, a collaboration of international NGOs and the Red Cross
Movement to improve quality disaster responses, is updating its handbook
outlining best practices in food aid, nutrition, health, water and sanitation
and emergency shelter.

The updated guide, known as the Sphere handbook, will reflect the increasing
complexity of the aid world and more explicitly address civil-military
relations, disaster risk reduction and early recovery, environmental impact,
psychosocial support and the role of cluster leads in humanitarian response.

Nine disaster response sectors - among them education, protection, and early
recovery - are headed up by either UN agency or NGO cluster leads to help
provide more coherent, coordinated emergency interventions.

Despite an increasingly crowded market-place of new aid quality guidelines and
best practices, Adam Poulter, head of the humanitarian team at NGO Care
International, told IRIN that Sphere still stands out. "The Sphere handbook is a
bit like the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".if you are starting afresh on a
sector and need some guidance, use Sphere. It is an all-in-one book and you can
travel with it."

The new handbook, expected to be published in 2010, will provide links to more
in-depth companion guides in a number of sectors, including livelihoods and
emergency education, and to other quality standards such as the Humanitarian
Accountability Project's  Sphere project manager John Damerell told IRIN.

Humanitarian cluster leads are now charged with developing standards and
guidelines in their sectors' disaster response - be it shelter or protection.
But Graham Saunders, international shelter head for the International Federation
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), told IRIN this is a complementary
rather than competitive process.

"Sphere is the starting point, it's the 'what', while the clusters can provide
the 'how-to'."

The IFRC also heads the international emergency shelter cluster. Saunders is one
of 22 experts consulting on Sphere's revisions.

Creating ambitious new standards while keeping the handbook short is a
challenge, said Saunders."It is always going to be a dilemma to provide simple,
consistent, clear, concise yet comprehensive guidelines, but we must try."

Realistic?

Equally challenging is maintaining such standards when there is inadequate
funding, access difficulties, resource limitations, and other barriers,
according to aid workers.

Ensuring no queues at water sources last more than 15 minutes, one of the
current Sphere standards, have rarely been met in camps in Darfur or eastern
Chad, aid workers told IRIN.

"This issue comes up all the time," said IFRC's Saunders. "But there is no value
in having standards that are bad practice - we don't need the lowest common
denominator," he told IRIN.

He added: "Denying people 3.5m2 of covered living space can compromise safe
separation of the sexes, which means a women's shelter might have to be built,
or it could lead to higher transmission of respiratory infections, requiring
more frequent health check-up visits."

Saunders told IRIN the guidelines are a tool to be adapted to each context, and
stressed the revised handbook should give better guidance on how to do this.

"If the standards are not met, there will always be other consequences. The
problems don't go away.if you can't meet the standards you don't give up,"
Saunders said.

aj/pt

[ENDS]

� IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis:
http://www.irinnews.org

[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions
expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member
States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes
is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx

IRIN partners: Canada, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, South
Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, UNEP and the IHC. More information:
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Weekly Update: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre - 15 Jul 2009

CLICK THIS LINK FOR ALL TOP STORIES added past 7 days / Principales noticias /
Articles de premier plan:
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Categories/Topstories?date=2009/07/15

Espa�ol: ver abajo  -  Fran�ais : voir ci-dessous

* Report on gender consultation by UN Special Representative John Ruggie - held
29 Jun, New York
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/664390

* SOMO "Overviews of controversial business practices in 2008" on: Aegon, Ahold,
AkzoNobel, Heineken, Philips, SBM Offshore, TNT
- statements/responses by 5 of the companies
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/SOMOreports

* Calvert removes Weyerhaeuser from social index for failing to meet standards
on indigenous peoples' rights
- Weyerhaeuser response
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/241174

* "Well Oiled - Oil and Human Rights in Equatorial Guinea": Human Rights Watch
report says govt. enriching itself at expense of citizens
- full report includes responses by Chevron, Devon, ExxonMobil, Hess, Marathon
- Vanco Energy did not respond to Human Rights Watch
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/676275

* Merck & "Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative" announce partnership to
develop treatments for neglected tropical diseases
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/462702

* "Blood Money on Wall Street" - Vanguard & Fidelity's rejection of shareholder
resolutions on genocide "repulsive," says column in Wall Street Journal
- article includes comments by Vanguard; statement from Fidelity website also
provided
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/957809

* Liberia: Global Witness & Publish What You Pay welcome transparency law to
ensure full disclosure of extractive firms' payments to govt.
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/890439

* India: Madras High Court rejects Dow Chemical plea to restrain Bhopal disaster
demonstrators
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/732321

* Report urges forestry industry to address conflicts with local people
- provides examples of steps taken by APRIL, Aracruz, Congolaise Industrielle
des Bois/DLH, Mondi, Sappi, Stora Enso, Weyerhaeuser
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/467055

* European Commission call for tenders for study on human rights legal framework
applicable to EU-based companies operating in other regions
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/995234

* UK: Government-commissioned inquiry into deaths in construction industry
recommends making directors legally responsible for health & safety
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/640852

* GlaxoSmithKline creates �50 million fund to treat African children with AIDS -
UK Parliamentarian welcomes the pledge, but says working with UNITAID would have
wider impact
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/683277

* Brazil: 174 workers found in slave-like conditions at Rotavi Industrial
charcoal factory
- company denies responsibility
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/676603

* Rwanda: Starbucks opens support centre to help farmers improve coffee quality,
attract better prices
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/475631

* Ukraine: NGO Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union annual report highlights
workplace fatalities & injuries, labour rights abuses, child labour,
environmental impacts on health - worst polluters listed
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/747207

* USA: Gay men allege discrimination at Chico's Tacos restaurant by All American
Intl. Security guards
- Chico's Tacos declined to comment to ABC-7
- All American Intl. Security stands by their security guards
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/999655

* Colombia: Muriel Mining rejoinder regarding alleged impacts on indigenous
communities, local NGOs role (further to previous Updates)
- includes links to all relevant materials
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/MandeNorte

* Global Action on ArcelorMittal comments on ArcelorMittal's response re alleged
health & safety abuses, environmental harms, displacement in 7 countries
(further to 27 May Update)
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/487882

* Conference, London, 18-19 Sep: "European Developments in Corporate Criminal
Liability" (registration fee)
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/385368

* Middlesex Univ. (UK) offers Masters in Business & Human Rights, to start
autumn 2010
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/343223

* Espa�ol: Argentina: Secretar�a del Trabajo y Fundaci�n Alameda son agredidos
en inspecci�n a taller textil denunciado por explotaci�n laboral y trata de
personas
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/232740

* Espa�ol: Guinea Ecuatorial: Human Rights Watch reclama mayor transparencia en
la gesti�n de riqueza procedente del petr�leo
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/419522

* Espa�ol: Panam�: Trabajadores protestan por salud y seguridad en proyecto
portuario de Alvarado & During, Vergel & Castellanos
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/925004

* Espa�ol: Chile: Ambientalistas preocupados por proyecto de empresa SQM cuyo
estudio de impacto ambiental acumula 82 reparos, principalmente sobre uso de
agua
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/221233

* Espa�ol: Colombia: Respuesta de Muriel Mining a ONG ABColombia refiri�ndose a
supuestos impactos sobre pueblos ind�genas y rol de ONGs locales (en seguimiento
a previas Actualizaciones)
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/MandeNorte

* Espa�ol: Merck y "Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative" acuerdan
desarrollar tratamientos para enfermedades tropicales m�s olvidadas
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/317718

* Espa�ol: Argentina: Localizan en quinta hort�cola trabajadores bolivianos en
"condiciones infrahumanas"
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/877222

* Espa�ol: Guatemala: 5 mil ind�genas marchan contra construcci�n de planta de
Cemento Progreso por potencial contaminaci�n de r�os
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/761360

* Espa�ol: Chile: Codelco colabora con iniciativa de educaci�n superior para
j�venes ind�genas
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/708914

* Fran�ais : Zimbabwe : Le gouvernement retirera l'arm�e des champs de diamants
- vise la conformit� avec le Processus de Kimberley
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/210575

* Fran�ais : Une certification prochaine des minerais de la R�publique
d�mocratique du Congo
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/803634

* Fran�ais : Afrique : L'acquisition de terres par les soci�t�s �trang�res peut
soulever les craintes des populations de perdre l'acc�s aux sources
d'alimentation
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/804878

* Fran�ais : CARE & Lafarge dans un partenariat pour �tendre ses programmes de
sant�, d�velopper un outil d'�valuation de l'impact social & �conomique de
l'entreprise
http://www.business-humanrights.org/Links/Repository/454790

ARCHIVE of past Weekly Updates / ARCHIVO de actualizaciones pasadas / ARCHIVE
des Actualit�s hebdomadaires pr�c�dentes:
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CONTENTS:

1 - AFRICA: Detecting stealth sleeping sickness
2 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable
3 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires
4 - SOMALIA: Vulnerable children hardest-hit in Mogadishu fighting
5 - SUDAN: Improvements in education - but mainly for the boys
6 - WEST AFRICA: Region still unprepared for pandemic flu

1 - AFRICA: Detecting stealth sleeping sickness

DAKAR, 14 July (IRIN) - Up to tens of thousands of people in Africa who are
infected with trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, go undiagnosed
because the only way to detect the deadly infection is through blood exams and a
painful expensive lower back puncture, according to the Geneva-based Foundation
for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND).

  "It is incredibly difficult now to detect the infection," Joseph Ndung'u,
FIND's head of trypanosomiasis programme, told IRIN. "The parasite numbers are
low. We are required to puncture the lumbar region [lower back] and examine the
spinal fluid through a microscope in order to determine whether parasites have
entered the brain."

  Once the infection - transmitted by the tsetse fly - penetrates  the brain, it
can attack the central nervous system.

  FIND is evaluating a microscope that is expected to cost several times less
than standard microscopes currently used for diagnoses. "This new microscope can
be used in the field and does not require an expensive laboratory with a
darkroom," said Ndung'u.

  The NGO is also researching molecular detection that does not require a
sophisticated lab or specialized personnel, as well as a rapid test, which
Ndung'u told IRIN is "highly feasible".

  "Right now, there must be a good technician to draw out the spinal fluid
carefully, a microscope, centrifuge and someone who is able to count the number
of white blood cells.Endemic areas are not likely to have all this," said
Ndung'u.

  If caught early, trypanosomiasis can be cured within a week of hospitalization,
said the FIND scientist. "But when the disease progresses to an advanced stage
and parasites have entered the brain, the only available medication can be toxic
in up to 10 percent of patients."

  The arsenic-based Melarsoprol is one of the drugs currently used for advanced
infections.

  World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 80 percent of late-stage
trypanosomiasis patients who do not respond to treatment, die. "The medicine is
toxic and a lot of effort has been put in an unsuccessful search for a safer
medication," said Ndung'u.

  FIND's Ndung'u said that while surveillance has improved and helped reduce
human deaths, the disease has typically resurged after occasional dips. "The
moment you start ignoring a disease is when it turns into an epidemic."

  Trypanosomiasis epidemics have taken place in Uganda and the Congo Basin
between 1896 and 1906 and in a number of African countries in 1920 and 1970.

  FIND's Ndung'u told IRIN that more than 90 percent of infections are currently
reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "This sleeping sickness disease is
like a sleeping giant. It goes underreported, especially during periods of
conflict, and by the time it receives national attention, a large proportion of
the population is infected."

  The FIND scientist cited reports in recent years in which there was a more than
30-percent prevalence in some endemic countries.

  Ndung'u told IRIN that the sleeping sickness disease prevalence is "grossly
underestimated" because many areas have no surveillance, and not all countries
report to WHO trypanosomiasis infections and deaths.

  pt/aj

[ENDS]

2 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable

JOHANNESBURG, 14 July (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in
military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted
the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a
South Africa-based think-tank.

  "These ammunition stockpiles pose a significant threat and have enduring
consequences in vulnerable and fragile societies, and as such need to be
adequately managed and/or disposed of by making use of the correct mechanisms
and best practice guidelines," the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) noted in
the latest of a series of reports on munitions storage.

  "Arms and ammunition stockpiles are becoming increasingly unstable due to age
and, in many cases, unintentional mismanagement," Ben Coetzee, Senior Researcher
at the ISS Arms Management Programme, told IRIN.

  "Since 2007 several explosions occurred in Mozambique and at least one in
Tanzania, resulting in hundreds of injuries and many deaths. Seen in this light,
there is an urgent need to re-evaluate the current principles of ammunition
stockpile management."

  In the past decade there have also been accidental explosions in military
storage facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Nigeria,
Angola and Sierra Leone.

  tdm/he[ENDS]

3 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires

NEW YORK, 14 July (IRIN) - "Despite popular opinion that non-profits are all
sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya together, they do have to manage
their resources, and any way they can reduce their expenses by managing those
well, I think is an opportunity for them," said NGO representative Barbara
Wallace of InterAction, one of 800 attendees at a trade fair involving more than
110 corporations, NGOs, UN agencies and government aid bodies in Washington DC
last week.

  From pharmaceuticals and insecticides to innovative waterproofing, security and
insurance, for-profit businesses hawked their wares to non-profit organizations
at Aid+Trade, one of the largest events of its kind.

  Wallace, vice-president of membership for InterAction, the largest coalition of
US-based international NGOs with 183 members, told IRIN: "Non-profits have to
buy services just like everybody else. I mean it's not like everything is
donated, because it simply isn't, and an opportunity for procurement people from
non-profits, CEOs from non-profits to visit a place where they can meet
competitors for what they're going to buy, and negotiate deals that might reduce
the price, I see as an advantage."

  InterAction hosted workshops and panel discussions with over 800 participants,
100 speakers and 40 different sessions. The fair was hosted by International Aid
& Trade, a London-based body.

  Director Sula Bruce was enthusiastic: "What it does is provide an opportunity
for companies to really communicate on an open, visible platform with the aid
agencies they are serving - UN, governmental or NGO. International Aid & Trade
enables humanitarian agencies to meet a cross-section of companies, which
assists them in securing the best prices for the goods and services they use."

  For the UN such events are part of an essential partnership with the business
world. "It serves an important and legitimate function. The UN and wider UN
humanitarian community must procure capital equipment, goods and services to
effectively fulfil their missions," Will Kennedy, senior programme officer at
the UN Fund for International Partnerships, told IRIN.

  "I personally don't see a conflict of interest here. All goods and services
procured by UN humanitarian agencies go through well established and fairly
rigorous competitive bidding processes."

  Sandless sandbags and other innovations

  The wares on show include the familiar, such as water-purifying equipment; the
novel, like an all-in-one raincoat and tent; as well as services, including
satellite communications and insurance. Bruce highlighted Active Engineering's
JakPak, an all-in-one waterproof jacket with "the built-in versatility of a
personal sleeping environment" billed as "a critical new resource for first
responders and disaster victims".

  Sentry Group, a Michigan-based company, introduced a multifunctional enclosed
trailer unit - the Sentry 5000 - capable of providing quickly deployable
electrical power, heating and cooling, communication and lighting as a single,
towable unit. It claims to be able to purify about 13,000 litres of water a day.

  Flood Inhibiting and Defense Organization (FIDO) displayed lightweight,
portable sandless sandbags that can stop intrusive water, activating instantly
on contact, billed as non-toxic and 100 percent biodegradable.

  Security is never far from the minds of NGOs and several exhibitors dealt with
issues ranging from mine clearance to protection from hostile elements, such as
L-3 CyTerra mine-detectors or and Clements International insurance services,
including for political risk and kidnap for ransom.

  Building ties

  At the 2007 fair in Geneva, the London-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), and
UNOSAT, the UN's Operational Satellite Applications Programme, realised that
their respective maps - MAG's showing unexploded ordnance and UNOSAT's showing
the location of water - could be used to establish settlements for displaced
people with sufficient water but away from dangerous areas.

  For Africare, an American-led NGO: "We actually have an opportunity to see what
new products are out there," said J. Margaret Burke, director of management
services, "[and] it gives an opportunity for NGOs to see each other as well as
the vendors."

  Summing up the position of many in the NGO world to possible ethical wariness
over the linkage between businesses and NGOs, Catholic Relief Services said its
presence did not represent an endorsement of the event, other presenters, the
exhibitors, or any of the suppliers.

  "That having been said, humanitarian organizations need supplies," spokesman
John Rivera told IRIN. "We buy lots of supplies locally, i.e. in the countries
where we operate, but we need other materials and seek the most efficient and
cost-effective way of getting what we need to where we need it. We are thankful
to have a vibrant market in the sort of basic materials we need."

  ma/bp/mw

[ENDS]

4 - SOMALIA: Vulnerable children hardest-hit in Mogadishu fighting

MOGADISHU, 14 July (IRIN) - At only 14, Ali Hussein Sid is already the sole
breadwinner of his family, his father having been killed in Somalia's ongoing
civil war and his mother seriously injured when a mortar landed on their home in
the capital, Mogadishu.

As a shoe-shiner, Sid sometimes goes home empty-handed as customers are hard to
come by in war-torn Mogadishu, where fighting between government troops and
Islamist insurgents has been most intense in recent months.

"My family depends on what I make shining shoes in the city but sometimes I go
back home without making a cent," he told IRIN on 13 July. "I feel very alone
when I am faced with a problem."

The situation for orphaned and vulnerable children such as Sid is especially
critical in Somalia as there is no government support and assistance for them.

The absence of a central government since the ousting of President Siad Barre in
1992 resulted in the collapse of the government's support system for the
vulnerable across the country.

Ahmed Dini, a civil society activist and member of Peace Line Group, a local
NGO, said orphaned and vulnerable children had borne the brunt of Somalia's
18-year civil war.

"A lot of the orphans and vulnerable children lost their parents in the ongoing
violence," Dini said. "They are among the people facing the hardest times in the
whole country; in fact the most vulnerable people in the country now are the
orphans as they were forced to flee from their homes yet they do not have
fathers to be responsible for them."

He said the numbers of children on the streets was continuing to rise as the
conflict worsens.

Dini said the children just wanted a childhood. "When we talk to them, they want
to go to school and play football. They basically want to be children."

There is a new phenomenon of children taking care of other children "because
both parents have died and there are no relatives to help", Dini said.

He said the long civil war had eroded the social support network that sustained
Somalis.

"The absence of [a] government structure is the greatest factor causing daily
problems [for these children]," Dini said. "It would be good to get a
strengthened institution that would care for young Somali orphans."

Meanwhile, Sid continues to struggle to make ends meet in his home in Howl-Wadag
district of Mogadishu.

"My father died last year and my mother was seriously injured when a heavy
mortar landed on our old home," Sid told IRIN. "No one cares about us. We need
to go to school and we deserve to get our rights [just] as those children whose
parents are alive."

Sid appealed to the international community and Somalis in the diaspora to help
orphaned and vulnerable children.

"I am requesting different relief organizations to assist us; my family and I
are in a critical condition, we need help," he said, adding that food and
education were their most urgent needs.

yhh/js/ah/mw

[ENDS]

5 - SUDAN: Improvements in education - but mainly for the boys

MALAKAL, 13 July (IRIN) - School enrolment across Southern Sudan has trebled
since the 2005 peace agreement, but the number of girls in class has remained
significantly lower than for boys, a new report said.

  Commissioned by the Southern Sudanese Education, Science and Technology
ministry, the report on Socio-Economic and Cultural Barriers to Schooling in
Southern Sudan attributed the low female enrolment to socio-cultural values,
norms and practices, with economic realities superimposed on them.

  "These factors exert their influence from birth, through the child-rearing
practices followed by different communities, initiation and marriage, to old
age," it noted. "In some communities. the girl-child is prized for the labour
she provides to the family, and for the dowry she brings. This pushes up the
opportunity cost of educating a girl, and exposes her to early marriage."

  The report was released on 7 July by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) to mark
Girl's Education Day in Southern Sudan. Only one in five children was in school
during the war, it noted, but only one girl in 100 completed a full course of
primary schooling. The region has the lowest school enrolment in the world.

  "Southern Sudan is considered one of the regions that are seriously off-track
in as far as attainment of the Millennium Development Goals is concerned as well
as that of attaining universal primary completion," it said.

  After the peace agreement, gross enrolment rose by about 23 percent in 2003 and
by 35 percent in 2008, and is projected to rise by 55 percent in 2011.

  "Following the launch of the Go-To-School initiative on 1 April 2006, enrolment
has risen from the wartime estimate of 343,000 to 850,000 by December 2006, and
to over 1.3 million by December 2007," the report of a study conducted between
August and October 2008, stated.

  The schools, however, still lack adequate facilities, including appropriate
sanitary provisions for girls. In 2005, more than 80 percent of school-children
had no bench to sit on and only 33 percent of schools had latrines. There is
also a shortage of trained teachers.

  In some communities, boys were missing school because they had to look after
cattle or go fishing, noted the study, while the girls in some schools
experienced sexual harassment, early pregnancy and child-to-child violence.

  Marriage a priority

  A school head in Malakal, Upper Nile State, said many girls could not study to
higher levels because they were expected to get married.

  "Many guardians are still reluctant to let their girls go to school," Williams
Gatmon, the head of Both Diu basic school, told IRIN in Malakal. "Among the
Southern Sudanese, it is very important for a girl to marry and bring home the
dowry."

  "The girls particularly find it hard to go to higher schools," Gatmon said on 7
July.

  Set up by the Southern Sudanese government in 2002, mainly to cater for
returnee children, the school had 75 female students out of 500 pupils. The
girls, aged eight to 20, were enrolled in all classes from four to eight.

  The school teaches in English, except for a year-eight Arabic class.

  The numbers were higher at Akobo town primary school in Jonglei State. The
school, which has classes one to eight, had enrolled 960 girls out of 1,695
children from ages six to 20, according to the headmaster Bhan Tut.

  There were two female teachers on the staff of 23. "The school has received a
lot of support since the [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] - books and other
supplies," Tut told IRIN. "The challenge is to pay the teachers on time. As we
speak, we last received salaries in April."

  eo/mw[ENDS]

6 - WEST AFRICA: Region still unprepared for pandemic flu

DAKAR, 14 July (IRIN) - Should an outbreak of severe pandemic influenza occur in
West Africa, most countries in the region would be armed with plans that look
good on paper but are untested and underfunded, according to health experts.

"Only a few African countries have started to get ready for the potential
disruptions a severe influenza pandemic would cause society," Liviu Vedrasco,
West Africa'S pandemic readiness adviser for the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed 94,500 cases of H1N1/09
worldwide with 429 deaths as of 7 July. Of these cases, 140 are in Africa, which
has not recorded a H1N1/09 death.

Most African governments have developed plans to respond to a severe influenza
outbreak, Dr. Michel Yao, WHO's West Africa emergency focal point, told IRIN.
But countries now need to implement these plans by training public service staff
tO set up pandemic influenza surveillance systems and identify vulnerable
groups, among other actions.

Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria have gone further than Sub-Saharan
neighbours by integrating pandemic flu response plans into their wider disaster
preparedness procedures, according to OCHA.

In Nigeria, the ministries of information and agriculture are working with the
health ministry to outline their joint response, said the health ministry's
epidemiology director, Abdul Nasidi.

"We have established a command centre. We are also trying to expand our pandemic
response plan.and we are working with the federal government to import more
stocks of Tamiflu [a flu-inhibiting drug] to cover at least 10 to 20 percent of
the population," he told IRIN.

In the Senegalese capital Dakar, a pre-existing infectious diseases committee is
now meeting weekly to plan the country's response, Awabadhily Bathily,
epidemiology adviser at the Senegalese Ministry of Health told IRIN. Where only
health staff attended before the latest flu outbreak, the interior and livestock
ministers are now also participating, she said.

National plans need to integrate flu preparedness into wider emergency response
plans, outline how each sector would respond - from defence forces to health
clinics and address special needs for vulnerable groups, said OCHA.

But some of the systems the Senegalese Ministry of Health has set up are not
operational - including an H1N1/09 information telephone hotline that plays
music  instead of providing information.

Space limitations in the national H1N1/09 focal point hospital "H�pital
Principal" prevent patients' isolation, which the US Center for Disease Control
(CDC) recommends for flu victims at the early stage of an outbreak.

WHO raised the level of influenza pandemic alert to the highest alert phase 6 on
11 June 2009 to capture the virus' global spread.

The current strain has been only moderately severe to date, but when the
northern hemisphere's flu season beings in October, OCHA fears more dangerous
strains could develop.

A severe outbreak could disrupt world financial markets; cause public services,
including health facilities and schools to collapse; shut down borders and
disrupt law and order, OCHA has warned.

"Pandemic influenza should be on the national security agenda of countries.
Parliaments should be discussing it and should allocate sufficient resources to
address response needs," said Vedrasco. "This is not just a health issue; it is
a whole-of-society problem."

WHO is supporting six laboratories in Africa - in Algeria, Cote d'Ivoire,
Senegal, two in Nigeria and South Africa - to test and treat H1N1/09, helping
countries set up surveillance systems, assisting governments to create national
response plans and is sending limited stocks of Tamiflu to treat H1N1/09 to
countries worldwide.

Preparing for a flu outbreak may not seem urgent, said Vedrasco, but to "see it
that way is to miss an opportunity."

"Through preparing for a severe influenza pandemic, governments could.improve
prevention control and response capacities for other infectious diseases and
disasters. History brings opportunities every now and then, and some of these
have the potential to foster long-term change."

aj/gc/pt

[ENDS]

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[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions
expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member
States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes
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CONTENTS:

1 - AFGHANISTAN: Cost of insecurity impedes humanitarian work - analysis
2 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable
3 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires
4 - PHILIPPINES: Sharp increase in IDPs after Mindanao bombings

1 - AFGHANISTAN: Cost of insecurity impedes humanitarian work - analysis

KABUL, 14 July (IRIN) - Armoured vehicles, armed escorts, blast-resistant walls
and other security measures have made humanitarian work in Afghanistan more
expensive and risky than ever before, say analysts.

  Movement of humanitarian convoys and protection of staff and facilities have
also become costly and challenging because of widespread attacks and threats.

  "Due to insecurity in some regions of the country, WFP [the UN World Food
Programme] has had to take extra measures to ensure the safety of its staff, as
well as the safe delivery of its food, and these have related costs," Susannah
Nicol, WFP's information officer in Kabul, told IRIN.

  In 2008, 30 attacks on WFP food aid convoys were reported, resulting in the
loss of 1,200MT of food, valued at US$700,000. So far this year, 12 attacks have
been reported with a loss of 42MT of aid, WFP said.

  Attacks on humanitarian convoys - which were uncommon in the past - have
increasingly discouraged commercial truck drivers from transporting aid to the
volatile south and east of Afghanistan. Drivers who still do the job demand more
money, armed escorts and no identifying insignia.

  One private truck driver said he charges 100 percent more than two years ago to
carry aid to southern Kandahar Province.

  "Costs to move food to areas considered by the UN as 'no-go' areas can be
expensive. However, the high [charges] ensure that WFP [aid] gets to its
destination," said Nicol. WFP has more than seven million beneficiaries across
the country.

  Cost factors

  While large swathes of the country, mostly in the south and east, are no-go
zones for most agencies, the increasing use of armoured vehicles, barricaded
compounds and restrictions on movement have also had an impact on operations in
relatively safe areas, such as Kabul, where many organizations recommend
armoured vehicles for their staff.

  Dozens of armoured vehicles - each costing more than $100,000 - have been
imported by international aid organisations over the past few years while
customs officials said papers for dozens more were being processed.

  However, some organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) prefer not to use them.

  "Armoured vehicles are both expensive and inconsistent with the nature of our
work," Patrick Hamilton, deputy head of the ICRC delegation, told IRIN, adding
that the organisation was more inclined to seek security guarantees for its
staff and activities through negotiations with warring parties and host
communities.

  However, the ICRC's modus operandi is extremely difficult, if not impossible,
for other aid agencies to replicate, specialists say.

  According to Antonio Donini of the Feinstein International Center (FIC), an
international research body on humanitarian issues, the social compact between
aid workers, local communities and combatants has been rapidly breaking down
because of perceptions and widening misunderstandings.

  "The ability of humanitarian agencies to address urgent need is compromised by
internal and external factors, ie, both by the organization and modus operandi
of aid agencies on the ground, and by an extremely volatile and dangerous
operating environment," said Donini in a briefing paper in March 2009.

  Risks for nationals

  Insecurity has restricted the ability and willingness of many international aid
agencies to send international staff to volatile areas, so some have sought to
recruit local residents to run programmes and execute projects. Sending
qualified Afghans to insecure provinces has also proven difficult.

  "In many instances positions have been advertised with attractive salaries -
higher than other [secure] areas - but people don't apply for jobs in insecure
provinces," Hashim Mayar, deputy director of ACBAR, an umbrella body of about
100 local and international NGOs operating in Afghanistan, told IRIN.

  "People don't want to risk their lives by working for NGOs in insecure
provinces," he said.

  Assessment missions to over half the country are being conducted by air because
of restrictions on road movements, even in armoured cars, say observers, with
additional cost implications.

  "Flights are certainly far more expensive than road missions," said Mayar.

  Lack of direct access prompts some aid agencies to adopt so-called
"remote-control" projects, which make aid action vulnerable to mismanagement and
corruption, according to a joint case study by Overseas Development Institute,
Integrity Watch Afghanistan and Humanitarian Policy Group.

  Consensus-building

  A report by the UN Secretary-General has forecast a bleak year for civilians
and aid workers. As insecurity intensifies, aid agencies inevitably review their
security procedures and apply appropriate mitigating measures.

  The ICRC says it will continue avoiding armed escorts and demonstrating its
impartial credentials and emblem. "We seek security through local acceptance and
support," said Hamilton.

  Others, including Donini, advise aid agencies to negotiate a "humanitarian
consensus" with all warring parties and neighbouring countries as the UN did in
the 1980 and 1990s.

  "Immediate steps should be taken to build a relationship of trust with all
parties to the conflict," said Donini.

  ad/at/mw

[ENDS]

2 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable

JOHANNESBURG, 14 July (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in
military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted
the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a
South Africa-based think-tank.

  "These ammunition stockpiles pose a significant threat and have enduring
consequences in vulnerable and fragile societies, and as such need to be
adequately managed and/or disposed of by making use of the correct mechanisms
and best practice guidelines," the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) noted in
the latest of a series of reports on munitions storage.

  "Arms and ammunition stockpiles are becoming increasingly unstable due to age
and, in many cases, unintentional mismanagement," Ben Coetzee, Senior Researcher
at the ISS Arms Management Programme, told IRIN.

  "Since 2007 several explosions occurred in Mozambique and at least one in
Tanzania, resulting in hundreds of injuries and many deaths. Seen in this light,
there is an urgent need to re-evaluate the current principles of ammunition
stockpile management."

  In the past decade there have also been accidental explosions in military
storage facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Nigeria,
Angola and Sierra Leone.

  tdm/he[ENDS]

3 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires

NEW YORK, 14 July (IRIN) - "Despite popular opinion that non-profits are all
sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya together, they do have to manage
their resources, and any way they can reduce their expenses by managing those
well, I think is an opportunity for them," said NGO representative Barbara
Wallace of InterAction, one of 800 attendees at a trade fair involving more than
110 corporations, NGOs, UN agencies and government aid bodies in Washington DC
last week.

  From pharmaceuticals and insecticides to innovative waterproofing, security and
insurance, for-profit businesses hawked their wares to non-profit organizations
at Aid+Trade, one of the largest events of its kind.

  Wallace, vice-president of membership for InterAction, the largest coalition of
US-based international NGOs with 183 members, told IRIN: "Non-profits have to
buy services just like everybody else. I mean it's not like everything is
donated, because it simply isn't, and an opportunity for procurement people from
non-profits, CEOs from non-profits to visit a place where they can meet
competitors for what they're going to buy, and negotiate deals that might reduce
the price, I see as an advantage."

  InterAction hosted workshops and panel discussions with over 800 participants,
100 speakers and 40 different sessions. The fair was hosted by International Aid
& Trade, a London-based body.

  Director Sula Bruce was enthusiastic: "What it does is provide an opportunity
for companies to really communicate on an open, visible platform with the aid
agencies they are serving - UN, governmental or NGO. International Aid & Trade
enables humanitarian agencies to meet a cross-section of companies, which
assists them in securing the best prices for the goods and services they use."

  For the UN such events are part of an essential partnership with the business
world. "It serves an important and legitimate function. The UN and wider UN
humanitarian community must procure capital equipment, goods and services to
effectively fulfil their missions," Will Kennedy, senior programme officer at
the UN Fund for International Partnerships, told IRIN.

  "I personally don't see a conflict of interest here. All goods and services
procured by UN humanitarian agencies go through well established and fairly
rigorous competitive bidding processes."

  Sandless sandbags and other innovations

  The wares on show include the familiar, such as water-purifying equipment; the
novel, like an all-in-one raincoat and tent; as well as services, including
satellite communications and insurance. Bruce highlighted Active Engineering's
JakPak, an all-in-one waterproof jacket with "the built-in versatility of a
personal sleeping environment" billed as "a critical new resource for first
responders and disaster victims".

  Sentry Group, a Michigan-based company, introduced a multifunctional enclosed
trailer unit - the Sentry 5000 - capable of providing quickly deployable
electrical power, heating and cooling, communication and lighting as a single,
towable unit. It claims to be able to purify about 13,000 litres of water a day.

  Flood Inhibiting and Defense Organization (FIDO) displayed lightweight,
portable sandless sandbags that can stop intrusive water, activating instantly
on contact, billed as non-toxic and 100 percent biodegradable.

  Security is never far from the minds of NGOs and several exhibitors dealt with
issues ranging from mine clearance to protection from hostile elements, such as
L-3 CyTerra mine-detectors or and Clements International insurance services,
including for political risk and kidnap for ransom.

  Building ties

  At the 2007 fair in Geneva, the London-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), and
UNOSAT, the UN's Operational Satellite Applications Programme, realised that
their respective maps - MAG's showing unexploded ordnance and UNOSAT's showing
the location of water - could be used to establish settlements for displaced
people with sufficient water but away from dangerous areas.

  For Africare, an American-led NGO: "We actually have an opportunity to see what
new products are out there," said J. Margaret Burke, director of management
services, "[and] it gives an opportunity for NGOs to see each other as well as
the vendors."

  Summing up the position of many in the NGO world to possible ethical wariness
over the linkage between businesses and NGOs, Catholic Relief Services said its
presence did not represent an endorsement of the event, other presenters, the
exhibitors, or any of the suppliers.

  "That having been said, humanitarian organizations need supplies," spokesman
John Rivera told IRIN. "We buy lots of supplies locally, i.e. in the countries
where we operate, but we need other materials and seek the most efficient and
cost-effective way of getting what we need to where we need it. We are thankful
to have a vibrant market in the sort of basic materials we need."

  ma/bp/mw

[ENDS]

4 - PHILIPPINES: Sharp increase in IDPs after Mindanao bombings

MANILA, 14 July (IRIN) - Displacement levels on the war-ravaged Philippine
island of Mindanao have risen to more than 430,000, according to data from the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other sources.

  This marks a significant increase in the number of internally displaced people
(IDPs), from an estimate of 290,000 by the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) in mid-June.

  However, DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral, whose office is the lead agency for
IDPs, stressed the scale of the problem was not enough to categorize it as a
humanitarian crisis.

  "There is still no humanitarian crisis, but there is certainly a requirement
for humanitarian assistance, which we have been able for the most part to
provide," she told journalists in Manila on 13 July.

  Cabral confirmed there had been a spike in the number of IDPs, as heavy clashes
between government forces and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) intensified [see: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85199] in
June, culminating in last week's bomb attacks.

  "A few days will pass and the number of IDPs will decrease again because they
will go back to their areas," she said.

  Most of the displaced are staying in some 150 government evacuation centres,
such as schools, or with family or friends, in the three conflict-affected
provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and North Cotabato, the country's
National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) [see: http://ndcc.gov.ph/home/]
reported.

  Describing the situation as "very fluid", Cabral, who cited figures closer to
300,000, noted that the number of displaced was actually much higher than
officially reported, especially in recent weeks.

  The nearly year-long conflict was also beginning to strain the government's
finances, Cabral said, noting that it had already spent more than US$10 million
in humanitarian assistance since fighting began in August, while international
aid agencies have spent nearly as much.

  "That's a lot of money that could have been spent on development projects, if
we did not have to spend it this way," she said.

  Food deliveries resume

  Cabral's comments followed an announcement by the World Food Programme (WFP)
that it was resuming food distributions to Mindanao following the bombings.

  The three bomb attacks, which killed at least eight and wounded over 100 on the
island of Jolo and the cities of Cotabato and Iligan where the agency maintains
sub-offices, were blamed on the MILF and the smaller militant group Abu Sayyaf,
which denied responsibility.

  "With travel restrictions being lifted, WFP was able to begin distributions to
just under 17,000 families in the municipalities of Datu Odin Sinsuat, Sultan
Kudarat, Sultan Mastura, South Kabuntalan and North Kabuntalan in the province
of Maguindanao, as well as in the city of Cotabato," WFP country director
Stephen Anderson said, adding that the agency had provided 11,700MT of food to
more than 500,000 people in six Mindanao provinces in the past 11 months.

  Operations on the islands of Basilan and Jolo, where the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu
Sayyaf largely operate, remain suspended.

  "We plan to continue to monitor the situation," he said, stressing that WFP
"stands ready to continue its complementary support to conflict-affected" areas.

  Coordination challenge

  Anderson said one of the key challenges was coordination efforts with the
government, especially in monitoring numbers in IDP camps. "One of the major
challenges we've had to face is the fact that the situation is very fluid. There
has been quite a bit of fluctuation in the numbers," Anderson said.

  "It's a situation that involves tens of thousands of families. It's serious and
they do require assistance. But at the same time, assistance is forthcoming even
as there are operational challenges that are being addressed."

  While there has been some improvement on the ground in terms of camp management
and logistical support, Anderson said "continuing action is needed to sustain"
this.

  Intense fighting began in August after the MILF, which has been waging a
separatist rebellion since 1978, broke a five-year-old ceasefire and launched
coordinated attacks across Mindanao after a high court decision scotched a
proposed deal that would have granted them control over what they claim are
ancestral lands.

  At the height of the fighting in September, more than 600,000 people were
displaced, although many of them have since returned to rebuild their villages.

  jg/ds/mw

[ENDS]

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[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions
expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member
States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes
is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx

IRIN partners: Canada, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, South
Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, UNEP and the IHC. More information:
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CONTENTS:

1 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable
2 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires
3 - ISRAEL: Crackdown on illegal migrants and visa violators

1 - AFRICA: Military munitions storage increasingly unstable

JOHANNESBURG, 14 July (IRIN) - The growing number of accidental explosions in
military arms and ammunition storage facilities across Africa has highlighted
the need for minimum standards in stockpile management in the continent, says a
South Africa-based think-tank.

  "These ammunition stockpiles pose a significant threat and have enduring
consequences in vulnerable and fragile societies, and as such need to be
adequately managed and/or disposed of by making use of the correct mechanisms
and best practice guidelines," the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) noted in
the latest of a series of reports on munitions storage.

  "Arms and ammunition stockpiles are becoming increasingly unstable due to age
and, in many cases, unintentional mismanagement," Ben Coetzee, Senior Researcher
at the ISS Arms Management Programme, told IRIN.

  "Since 2007 several explosions occurred in Mozambique and at least one in
Tanzania, resulting in hundreds of injuries and many deaths. Seen in this light,
there is an urgent need to re-evaluate the current principles of ammunition
stockpile management."

  In the past decade there have also been accidental explosions in military
storage facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Nigeria,
Angola and Sierra Leone.

  tdm/he[ENDS]

2 - GLOBAL: Not all Kumbaya and campfires

NEW YORK, 14 July (IRIN) - "Despite popular opinion that non-profits are all
sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya together, they do have to manage
their resources, and any way they can reduce their expenses by managing those
well, I think is an opportunity for them," said NGO representative Barbara
Wallace of InterAction, one of 800 attendees at a trade fair involving more than
110 corporations, NGOs, UN agencies and government aid bodies in Washington DC
last week.

  From pharmaceuticals and insecticides to innovative waterproofing, security and
insurance, for-profit businesses hawked their wares to non-profit organizations
at Aid+Trade, one of the largest events of its kind.

  Wallace, vice-president of membership for InterAction, the largest coalition of
US-based international NGOs with 183 members, told IRIN: "Non-profits have to
buy services just like everybody else. I mean it's not like everything is
donated, because it simply isn't, and an opportunity for procurement people from
non-profits, CEOs from non-profits to visit a place where they can meet
competitors for what they're going to buy, and negotiate deals that might reduce
the price, I see as an advantage."

  InterAction hosted workshops and panel discussions with over 800 participants,
100 speakers and 40 different sessions. The fair was hosted by International Aid
& Trade, a London-based body.

  Director Sula Bruce was enthusiastic: "What it does is provide an opportunity
for companies to really communicate on an open, visible platform with the aid
agencies they are serving - UN, governmental or NGO. International Aid & Trade
enables humanitarian agencies to meet a cross-section of companies, which
assists them in securing the best prices for the goods and services they use."

  For the UN such events are part of an essential partnership with the business
world. "It serves an important and legitimate function. The UN and wider UN
humanitarian community must procure capital equipment, goods and services to
effectively fulfil their missions," Will Kennedy, senior programme officer at
the UN Fund for International Partnerships, told IRIN.

  "I personally don't see a conflict of interest here. All goods and services
procured by UN humanitarian agencies go through well established and fairly
rigorous competitive bidding processes."

  Sandless sandbags and other innovations

  The wares on show include the familiar, such as water-purifying equipment; the
novel, like an all-in-one raincoat and tent; as well as services, including
satellite communications and insurance. Bruce highlighted Active Engineering's
JakPak, an all-in-one waterproof jacket with "the built-in versatility of a
personal sleeping environment" billed as "a critical new resource for first
responders and disaster victims".

  Sentry Group, a Michigan-based company, introduced a multifunctional enclosed
trailer unit - the Sentry 5000 - capable of providing quickly deployable
electrical power, heating and cooling, communication and lighting as a single,
towable unit. It claims to be able to purify about 13,000 litres of water a day.

  Flood Inhibiting and Defense Organization (FIDO) displayed lightweight,
portable sandless sandbags that can stop intrusive water, activating instantly
on contact, billed as non-toxic and 100 percent biodegradable.

  Security is never far from the minds of NGOs and several exhibitors dealt with
issues ranging from mine clearance to protection from hostile elements, such as
L-3 CyTerra mine-detectors or and Clements International insurance services,
including for political risk and kidnap for ransom.

  Building ties

  At the 2007 fair in Geneva, the London-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), and
UNOSAT, the UN's Operational Satellite Applications Programme, realised that
their respective maps - MAG's showing unexploded ordnance and UNOSAT's showing
the location of water - could be used to establish settlements for displaced
people with sufficient water but away from dangerous areas.

  For Africare, an American-led NGO: "We actually have an opportunity to see what
new products are out there," said J. Margaret Burke, director of management
services, "[and] it gives an opportunity for NGOs to see each other as well as
the vendors."

  Summing up the position of many in the NGO world to possible ethical wariness
over the linkage between businesses and NGOs, Catholic Relief Services said its
presence did not represent an endorsement of the event, other presenters, the
exhibitors, or any of the suppliers.

  "That having been said, humanitarian organizations need supplies," spokesman
John Rivera told IRIN. "We buy lots of supplies locally, i.e. in the countries
where we operate, but we need other materials and seek the most efficient and
cost-effective way of getting what we need to where we need it. We are thankful
to have a vibrant market in the sort of basic materials we need."

  ma/bp/mw

[ENDS]

3 - ISRAEL: Crackdown on illegal migrants and visa violators

TEL AVIV, 14 July (IRIN) - Immigration inspectors have launched an operation
aimed at deporting nearly 300,000 illegal migrants and visa violators, according
to Tziki Sela, head of the enforcement unit at Israel's new Immigration
Authority.

  "We will carry out the deportations with the [maximum] measures of care and
consideration and a humane attitude, but we are serious and we will deport all
illegal migrant workers and visa violators," Sela said.

  The Israel Immigration Authority replaced the Immigration Police on 2 July. Its
200 inspectors have undergone a three-week course and been given full police
authority.

  According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), visa violators are asylum seekers
detained in areas where they were not allowed to reside, or whose visas had
expired.

  Many NGOs and human rights activists voiced their concerns over the new
operation, fearing a repeat of the scenes witnessed in Tel Aviv in 2003-2005
when the Immigration Police conducted a much criticized and often brutal manhunt
aimed at deporting illegal migrant workers.

  At that time, some 145,000 migrants were reportedly deported or left Israel
voluntarily, many of them were from Ghana, the Philippines, China, Romania,
Thailand and some other African countries.

  "The operation will resemble that of 2003-2005 in the aspect that we intend to
do our job; it will take us a long time to detain and deport all illegal
residents, but we will do it," Sela said, adding that his inspectors had already
been subjected to threats and physical attacks by activists and migrants.

  Asylum seekers whose status had not yet been determined and had violated their
permits and migrant workers awaiting deportation would be held in detention
centres, including Ktziot in the southern Negev, where families of asylum
seekers, including infants and children, have been held since July 2007.

  Question of minors

  On 8 June, Israel's Knesset held an urgent meeting of its child welfare
committee to discuss the issue of minors and detention during the new operation.

  Lawmakers Ilan Gilon and Nitzan Horowitz criticized the Immigration Authority's
intention to detain the children of migrant workers and asylum seekers. Horowitz
said those children might not be Jewish but they were Israelis as they had been
born there.

  In 2006, Israel granted legal residency status to more than 600 children of
migrant workers born in Israel out of some 860 requests filed.

  On 12 June, Horowitz initiated a new draft law preventing detention of children
under 14 and restricting detention of minors over 14.

  "We will arrest families with children starting from 1 August. We will not act
within the education or the medical system to detain children or patients, we
give the parents a choice - they are welcome to approach us and we will make
sure that their relocation is done with minimum difficulties; if not we will
have to detain them," Sela explained.

  "We intend to fund plane tickets, help with any debt collection from employers
and supply a small allowance to all those who willingly approach us. So far,
some 50 illegal migrant workers have come forth and asked for our assistance in
returning to their homeland," he said.

  Some say that the recent clampdown on illegal migrants is related to the
economic slowdown and growing unemployment in Israel. According to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Outlook no. 85 -
Israel report issued on 24 June, Israel's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is
expected to contract by 2 percent in 2009 and unemployment rise to 8.5 percent
from 6.1 percent in 2008.

  While immigration inspectors distributed pamphlets calling on the migrant
community to take advantage of the offer, NGOs and activists mobilized to
prevent detentions by patrolling the streets of southern Tel Aviv and warning
migrant workers and asylum seekers about the ongoing operation and holding
weekly demonstrations.

  td/at/mw[ENDS]

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