CBPM

http://stayingfortea.org/2010/07/23/evaluating-with-purpose-part-1-the-evaluation-charade/

2011-01-24T08:53:00.000+05:30

http://stayingfortea.org/2010/07/23/evaluating-with-purpose-part-1-the-evaluation-charade/

A Left Approach to Development

2010-07-29T10:32:00.001+05:30

By: Prabhat Patnaik Vol XLV No.30 July 24, 2010
Against the “means-based approach” to development that the bourgeoisie projects, the left must project a “rights-based approach”. Since “rights” are guarantors of welfare gains, every winning of rights likewise strengthens them. The acquisition of rights on the part of the people, including rights to minimum bundles of goods, services and security, amounts therefore to winning crucial battles in the class war for the transcendence of capitalism. If the left were to put on its agenda a struggle for people’s rights and adopt a rights-based approach to development as opposed to the means-based approach of the bourgeois formations, it would not constitute a retreat into abstract humanism but would be an integral part of the dialectics of subversion of the logic of capital. (EPWP

Read the entire article:
http://beta.epw.in/newsItem/comment/188540/

Media hype and the reality of “new” India

2010-07-29T10:29:00.000+05:30

Poverty in at least eight States — Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand — was worse than in some of the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
In a week when Delhi's new “world-class” airport opened for business and the Indian Space Research Organisation celebrated the successful launch of five new satellites, we had a stark reminder of another India that, increasingly, many Indians feel embarrassed to talk about. A United Nations-backed study by Oxford University revealed that poverty in at least eight Indian States — Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand — was worse than in some of the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
The findings are based on a global poverty index, the Multidimensional Poverty Index or MPI, developed by Oxford University. It takes into account a range of social factors not hitherto considered while measuring poverty and will replace the Human Poverty Index (HPI) which, until now, has formed the basis for the annual U.N. Human Development Reports.
How's the new index significantly different from the traditional ways of measuring poverty and how will it make a difference on the ground? Here, Dr. Sabina Alkire, Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), who has travelled extensively in India, speaks to Hasan Suroor:
Were you surprised by the finding that there are more poor people in eight Indian States than in the 26 poorest African states combined?
No, I wasn't really surprised, as the scale of Indian poverty is well known within the academic world —whether measured in income terms or multi-dimensionally. But the recent focus on India's phenomenal growth in the media has given the impression that the largest numbers of very poor people are in Sub-Saharan Africa rather than South Asia (where there are nearly twice as many MPI poor than in Africa). We wanted to test that impression.
To get this comparison, what we did was to set a more extreme poverty cut-off, which identified the Indian States and the African countries whose Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was equal or greater than 0.32 (the MPIs we calculated for 104 countries range from 0 to .64). Eight Indian States and 26 African countries fall below that cutoff. That's where this figure comes from.
To give an idea of what this means, the least poor entry is West Bengal (MPI = 0.32), in which 58 per cent of people are MPI poor, and they are on average deprived in 54 per cent of the dimensions or weighted indicators; in Niger 93 per cent of people are MPI poor.
Actually, the intensity of poverty in Africa is still higher — the population-weighted MPI for the 26 African countries is 0.43, whereas for the Indian States it is 0.39.
Read the entire interview:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/article523817.ece

West Bengal releases three District Human Development Reports

2010-07-29T10:24:00.000+05:30

Kolkata - An in-depth study of three districts in the Indian state of West Bengal reveals that where you live can determine your well-being as there are wide variations in human development between districts and also between rural and urban populations.
According to recent surveys, in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal gender gaps in literacy have been narrowing faster than the state average and more than one-third of women own land. In North 24 Parganas, however, the picture is mixed – with a rise in income and purchasing power in the ever-spreading urban areas, acute distress in the rural areas (in nearly 30% of rural households) and severe malnutrition in the slums. In Uttar Dinajpur district, women’s political empowerment is noteworthy at 35 percent of seats in Panchayati Raj Institutions even prior to reservation of seats for women but fertility rates of 4.9 are significantly higher than the state average of 2.4.
It is also reported that the Sunderbans in South 24 Parganas is highly vulnerable to climate change and it is estimated that 15 percent of the region will be submerged by 2020. Neglecting the Sunderbans can have global implications.
These are among the findings of the three District Human Development Reports (HDRs), for the districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Uttar Dinajpur, released by the Government of West Bengal, maintaining its lead as the state far ahead in incorporating the human development approach in planning at district-levels.

Read entire report

Where are the Indian Poor: Tendulkar report

2010-07-28T10:36:00.002+05:30

Carrie Grant visits India with

2010-07-28T10:30:00.001+05:30

Singer and vocal coach to the stars Carrie Grant is visiting a new community development project in India with World Vision UK this week.
Carrie, who is best known for her work on television talent shows including Fame Academy and Pop Idol, will visit the Vaishali project in the country’s impoverished north-eastern state of Bihar.
The presenter is the face of Girls Night Out, a new World Vision event for women in the UK. The evenings, which launch in the autumn, aim to entertain and inspire while sharing stories about World Vision’s partnerships with women who live in developing countries.
Carrie said: “I'm very excited to be visiting Vaishali. It's a fairly new project for World Vision, so it'll be interesting to see how things are taking off.
“I know World Vision grounds its work in grassroots cooperation and I'm a great believer in community – it'll be good to meet the people and learn how the local experts are moving forward day to day.”
Child health
During her trip, Carrie will see examples of the project’s work to improve the health of children who live in the community.
Many children in Vaishali are impacted by severe health problems, including diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Malnutrition is the underlying cause in at least one-third of child deaths.
Carrie will watch a street theatre group highlight important health messages and meet staff and patients at the community’s only health centre, which serves almost 78,000 people.
She will also talk to women involved in a local self-help group, who have been supported to start small businesses that help them to provide for their children.
The first Girls Night Out will take place at St Mary's Church in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, on 10 September, with other dates around the country to follow.
26 July 2010

World Vision reaction to UN Matrnal health Plan

2010-07-28T10:25:00.001+05:30

From this World Vision press release, the humanitarian organization gives its reaction to a new United Nations plan on maternal and child health. World Vision fights poverty worldwide by focusing on improving the lives of children and the communities around them, you can learn more about sponsoring a child by going to their website.
The new United Nations initiative for global maternal, newborn and child health is a promising step toward reinvigorating progress, but neglects to adequately address some important action points, according to World Vision, the world's largest international humanitarian organisation focusing on the well-being of children.Stopping parent-to-child transmission of HIV, providing universal access to treatment for all children and mothers who need it, and ensuring safe pregnancy and childbirth are all essential to improve overall health and survival, UN leaders and health experts emphasized this week at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. World Vision also underscores the importance of strengthening family and community care, a cornerstone of successful public health interventions."This UN-led plan will help build on the progress made in reducing needless deaths of children and mothers so far, and we commend the leadership that has made this health catastrophe a priority," Stefan Germann, director of global HIV and health partnerships for World Vision International, said today at a panel discussion in Vienna with officials from UNAIDS, UNICEF and other groups."However, some critical gaps remain - particularly when it comes to ensuring that life-saving interventions make it the last mile to the people who most need them," said Germann.The Joint Action Plan, first introduced in June, calls for all countries to revitalize efforts to meet Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 by further reducing preventable deaths of mothers and children worldwide. Millennium Development Goal 6, which includes reducing HIV and AIDS, calls for universal treatment access and a stop to new infections of children."To succeed in achieving these goals, health care options must be brought closer to households, and barriers to using these services must be reduced," said Germann. "Even the poorest countries can deliver on their pledges if supported with the right kind of technical expertise and appropriate levels of funding, as we've seen in several examples."Wealthy countries must be held accountable to deliver on aid pledges they have already made and urged to ensure an additional US $42.5 billion in health investment by 2015. G8 and G20 leaders at last month's summits in Canada fell far short of this. Any global plan should also press mid- to low-income country governments to move toward dedicating 15 percent of their national budgets to health, as African countries pledged in the Abuja declaration, and include maternal and child health in their national poverty reduction strategies.World Vision's own Child Health Now campaign, launched in November 2009, has recommitted the organisation to aligning its health work to prioritise maternal and child health, with US $1.5 billion over the next 5 years to help priority countries improve their health systems reaching the community and household level. World Vision responds to HIV and AIDS-related needs in nearly 60 countries."Children still lag far behind adults in access to HIV prevention and treatment, while many mothers face pregnancy and childbearing without access to ways to protect their babies from HIV, and we must close those gaps," said Germann."We have good technologies, good treatments," said Germann. "Getting those within a mile of people is easy, but to cover the 'last mile' is the hardest part. That is why we need to focus on strengthening community systems-local faith groups, churches and community health groups-anyone who is able to make sure that health care options reach those in need."

BCG Press Releases - Companies Are Rethinking Strategy-Development Approaches to Better Adapt to TodayÃ¢ÂÂs Competitive Environment, Says Report by The Boston Consulting Group

2009-07-24T15:59:00.001+05:30

BCG Press Releases - Companies Are Rethinking Strategy-Development Approaches to Better Adapt to TodayÃ¢ÂÂs Competitive Environment, Says Report by The Boston Consulting Group

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25 Stretch Goals for Management

2009-07-24T15:12:00.001+05:30

25 Stretch Goals for Management

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VOTE FOR CHILDREN

2009-05-07T08:53:00.002+05:30

Why should I Vote for leaders who care for Children?
At 400 million, children constitute 41% of India's population. And in most constituencies, children are in the majority than adults.
In spite of the plethora of issues that children face, their problems are either ignored or forgotten by political parties and policy makers, because they are not their vote bank.
Thus, since the children do not have the right to vote, these children trust us, the rest 60%, to use our 'Right to Vote' responsibly and choose a government that's receptive to the issues of India's children.
Why think about children?
Around 20% of Children between 6 & 14 years do not go to school.
2, 20,000 children are HIV infected. A very large percentage of them have no proper access to treatment and are uncared for.
12.6 million Children work in hazardous occupations.
40% of women sex workers enter into prostitution when they are still children (i.e., before they are 18 yrs old)
47% of children are malnourished
74% of children below 3 years are anemic.
But the budget allotted to address issues of 400 million children was just less than 5% of the total budget.
What do the children want?
Following is a 10 point “Children’s Manifesto” that children from across the country have put together as part of the ‘Bal Adhikar Sabha’ organized by World Vision India.
1. Every Child to be immunized, every pregnant mother receive nourishment and care, every village has a hospital with doctors.
2. Free, compulsory, quality and inclusive education for all children till they complete eighteen years.
3. Every village has a school, every panchayat a school upto std. 12.
4. Value-based education should be part of the regular curriculum to enable children to make right decisions in future.
5. No discrimination on the basis of caste, gender, religion, poverty, disability, colour, appearance or migrant status.
6. Children should be included in all the development programmes organized by society and by the Government. In every area a special cell should be formed to look after the children's problems.
7. Protection for children from all forms of abuses and severe punishment for perpetrators.
8. Bal Mitra Police and Bal Adalats for protection of children.
9. Extension of National Child Labour Project to every district.
10. 25% of allocation in Budget for children who form 40% of the population.

http://www.worldvision.in/?voteforchildren

Can we manage this crisis differently? Bailing out the poor, not just the banks

2009-04-07T08:48:00.000+05:30

Author : Minouche Shafik
Date : January 26th, 2009
In every economic crisis, it is the poor that suffer the most. Whether it is individuals or countries, they are the most vulnerable and lack the savings and the institutions to support them during difficult times. In past crises, we have focused too late on adverse effects on poor people. Can we do it differently this time?
The current economic downturn, unlike the East Asia crisis, started in the richest countries and has now affected the major emerging markets. The effects on low income countries are being felt, not mainly through financial markets, but through the volatility of commodity prices, the decline in export volumes and remittances. Reporting from DFID’s offices (Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan) indicate that in some cases poor households are taking children out of school to save money, and families, especially women and girls, are eating less or lower quality food, leading to concerns about malnutrition. Estimates are that the economic crisis has already put 100 million people back into poverty.
It is interesting to recall the lessons from previous shocks. During the recession of the 1980s, many developing countries embarked on structural adjustment programmes. While the economic reforms were often necessary, the awareness of the negative effects quickly became apparent and caused political problems in many countries and for the international financial institutions. The appeals for “adjustment with a human face” ensued and instruments such as Social Funds were established in many countries to cushion the effects through community development, skills training, and microfinance. While these Social Funds were often quite effective, they often took too long to establish and failed to play a truly countercyclical role in helping the poorest cope with economic adjustment.
For developing countries, this crisis started with the spike in food prices in early 2008. Interestingly, there was once again an appeal to create new institutions. The international response focused on a set of short term measures (food aid, social protection, input subsidies, etc.) and longer term measures (investment in research, infrastructure). But within months of agreement on this, food prices had started to fall and energy prices skyrocketed. Once again, there was a search for ways to alleviate the adverse effects. And once momentum on an international response coalesced, oil prices fell by two-thirds.
What lessons can we draw from these experiences? First, it is the nature of globalisation that there will be shocks. Those shocks may be food or fuel prices or credit squeezes or flights to quality, but they will come. Second, attempts to orchestrate a tailored response to protect the most vulnerable will almost always lag behind the need. This is inevitable given the long lead times required when new institutions are desired. Third, the best mechanisms are those that provide protection from any shock and use existing institutions and programmes to keep the most vulnerable above a minimum threshold.
Some countries have formal systems of social protection which can vary from reasonably good (Brazil, Ghana, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam), to limited (Uganda, Zambia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Central Asia, Caribbean, Iraq) to still under preparation (Kenya, Sierra Leone, Cambodia). But in many countries there is no formal system and poor households rely on informal mechanisms such as remittances (Pakistan, China) or digging into modest savings (China), borrowing from moneylenders (Bangladesh), or drawing down on assets such as livestock (Tanzania) in order to cope. A good example of a well designed social protection scheme is Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme, which provides cash and food transfers for over 7 million people. £13 ($18) per month pays for cash transfers to support an entire family. The overwhelming majority (84%) of households spend some or all of this cash on buying staple food, ensuring improved health and nutrition outcomes and protecting families from having to sell productive assets to pay for food. Over a quarter of recipients (28%) also use some of the funds to keep children in school. Cash is also used to settle health bills and to facilitate asset accumulation by many families, especially livestock purchases. The programme proved its value last year, protecting many families from high food prices and drought and enabling the government and donors to use the existing programme to extend the duration of assistance.
DFID does not see the money we have committed to social protection as a welfare programme, although clearly for some households it will provide this function. The real pay off from social protection is in protecting other investments we are making in development (Ravallion, 2008). There is strong evidence that economic shocks in poor countries cause rising infant mortality, falling school enrollment, and falls in nutrition levels (Ferreira and Schady, 2008). Severe malnutrition in early childhood often leads to stunted physical development and deficits in cognitive development - all of which reduce life chances and result in significant losses in life-time earnings (Alderman et al, 2006; Behrman et al, 2004). The costs of preventing such malnutrition can be very low because of recent technological advances - as noted in Josette Sheeran’s January 8 contribution to Ideas4development.
In the months ahead, more poor countries need to be instituting social protection schemes to ensure that this economic crisis does not cause persistent poverty across generations and undermine recent progress, especially on education. When the Tequila crisis hit Mexico in 1994, it triggered the design of the famous PROGRESA programme which resulted in the establishment for the first time of an effective safety net for the country’s poor. More countries should do the same and more donors should be allocating funding to social protection. Robert Zoellick has called on the US to pledge 0.7 per cent of its stimulus package to a vulnerability fund for developing countries, who cannot afford a fiscal stimulus, to help them manage the consequences of the crisis (”A Stimulus Package for the World”, New York Times, 22 January 2009). Ideally we would create a shared funding mechanism that would send a strong signal that, alongside international policy coordination to protect the world’s financial systems, we will work together to protect the poorest from the inevitable shocks that globalisation brings. Without that, we risk losing the international consensus around globalisation and the value of past and future investments in development.

The nutrition challenge and what I saw in India

2009-04-07T08:45:00.001+05:30

Author : Josette Sheeran
The global financial crisis and the high cost of food mean different things in different places. In those parts of the world where hunger is on the march, their impact can be measured in empty stomachs and blighted lives. That is why, during my recent visit to India, I traveled to a remote district called Chhatarpur in the central state of Madhya Pradesh (MP). I went there because I wanted to see for myself the plight of people in India’s hunger heartland. I particularly wanted to listen to the experiences of the local women. As always in such situations, the women are the ones in the front line of the war against hunger.
So serious is the food-security situation in MP that, when inserted into the country table of the Global Hunger Index, the state falls between Ethiopia and Chad which are among the 10 poorest-performing countries in the world. One third of the children under five in MP suffer from wasting (too thin for their height) and 60 per cent are underweight (too thin for their age), according to India’s most recent National Family Health Survey.
Chhatarpur, in the north of the state, is one of a number of MP districts in the grip of malnutrition. “Severely insecure” is how it is described in the forthcoming Report of Food Security in Rural India, a joint initiative of the World Food Programme and the MS Swaminathan Foundation. Climate change would appear to be contributing to the problem. Persistent drought during the past five years has led to crop failures and cattle losses, driving many farmers into severe debt. A woman called Krishna told me her husband is jobless, their land barren. They have four small children whom they are struggling to feed. So bad is the situation, they have even been thinking of selling off their land to raise badly-needed cash.
This year, as last year, children died from hunger-related diseases in Chhatarpur. Women whom I met told me of the crushing difficulties they face every day in feeding their children. At a Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre where severely malnourished children are nursed back to health, I learnt first-hand about the ravages of hunger. Some of the women had not just one but several malnourished children to care for. The mothers were so busy with looking after their large families and performing endless household chores that, even when they did have enough food, they often did not have the time to prepare it properly and feed it to their babies.
The point about malnutrition, though, is that it is not like cancer. It does not need some new scientific discovery for us to tackle it. We already have the tools to eradicate hunger and history will judge us if we do not use them.
India is home to more than 230 million undernourished people - the highest number of any one country in the world. But it is also at the forefront of the race to produce innovative nutrition technology. WFP’s India operation is currently developing a “smart” nutritional intervention for children of 6-24 months - exactly the age group of children at the Rehabilitation Centre in Chhatarpur.
This new ready-to-use food is made from ingredients such as chickpeas and dry skimmed milk powder with a range of added micronutrients. There is huge scope for this type of nutritional supplement in India which has the highest prevalence of underweight children in the world, higher even that sub-Saharan Africa. This latest addition to our hunger toolbox can be used not just for rehabilitating malnourished children but for preventing them becoming malnourished in the first place.
This product can be made locally and at relatively low cost - a daily ration costs just five rupees (10 cents). Being oil-based, it does not require water for its preparation, giving it a longer shelf life and making it particularly suitable for use in places with poor sanitation. Nor does it require cooking which makes it ideal for distribution in disaster zones - which is why we deployed it as part of our relief package after the recent cyclone in Myanmar.
It has already excited significant interest in the region and beyond. Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh have all expressed interest in making this product part of their national food programmes. When I produced a sachet at the African Union Summit in Ethiopia not long ago, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he wanted to start producing locally it in his own country.
I really feel we are embarking on a new age of tackling malnutrition. For the first time, we have a range of products which can deliver the kind of nutritious ‘punch’ that is needed to hit hunger where it matters.
Another initiative that WFP has pioneered in India has been rice fortification. This has huge potential and could be particularly useful in countries like India which has the largest population suffering from vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the world.
Just one kernel of this fortified rice, added to 99 regular rice kernels, gives an undernourished child or an adult all those micronutrients they so desperately need.
Working in partnership with a Dutch company and the authorities in Orissa, WFP is starting on a pilot project to fortify 10,000 metric tones of rice in the eastern Indian state. This will be distributed over a two-year period through the Indian government’s mother-and-child feeding programme, reaching up to a quarter of a million beneficiaries. The idea is that what happens in Orissa will serve as a model for the Indian government to extend rice fortification to other parts of the country.
Micronutrient powder is another intervention we’ve been working on in India. Sprinkled on cooked food, this tasteless powder delivers meals that contain the daily recommended intake of essential vitamins and minerals. Again, this innovative idea has applications for use way beyond India and the South Asia region.
We’re looking at nothing short of a nutritional revolution here, a change in the way we target specific needs and specific communities. Another issue we have been exploring in India is how to improve the nutritional status of people with HIV and AIDS. Working closely with India’s National AIDS Control Organisation, WFP has devised a special fortified food supplement called ‘NutriPlus’, made from wheat and full-fat soya. Pilot projects in Orissa and in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are now leading the way in the nutritional care of this particular sector of society in India.
Such new products and initiatives come at a crucial moment. In this time of financial crisis and high food prices, people make cut-backs where they can. What goes first is the nutritional content of a family’s diet. My experiences in Chhatarpur and elsewhere in the world have shown me that, when push comes to shove, vulnerable people either cut down on the number of meals they eat or reduce the servings of food. This is particularly hard on children and babies who need that nutrition and those minerals to grow up into healthy, fully-functioning adults.
If we can target the most vulnerable - particularly young children - with tailored nutritional interventions during the crucial early months of their lives, then we will have gone a long way towards winning our battle against malnutrition.

As Indian Growth Soars, Child Hunger Persists

2009-03-26T08:53:00.001+05:30

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: March 12, 2009
NEW DELHI — Small, sick, listless children have long been India’s scourge — “a national shame,” in the words of its prime minister, Manmohan Singh. But even after a decade of galloping economic growth, child malnutrition rates are worse here than in many sub-Saharan African countries, and they stand out as a paradox in a proud democracy.
China, that other Asian economic powerhouse, sharply reduced child malnutrition, and now just 7 percent of its children under 5 are underweight, a critical gauge of malnutrition. In India, by contrast, despite robust growth and good government intentions, the comparable number is 42.5 percent. Malnutrition makes children more prone to illness and stunts physical and intellectual growth for a lifetime.
There are no simple explanations. Economists and public health experts say stubborn malnutrition rates point to a central failing in this democracy of the poor. Amartya Sen, the Nobel prize-winning economist, lamented that hunger was not enough of a political priority here. India’s public expenditure on health remains low, and in some places, financing for child nutrition programs remains unspent.
Yet several democracies have all but eradicated hunger. And ignoring the needs of the poor altogether does spell political peril in India, helping to topple parties in the last elections.
Others point to the efficiency of an authoritarian state like China. India’s sluggish and sometimes corrupt bureaucracy has only haltingly put in place relatively simple solutions — iodizing salt, for instance, or making sure all children are immunized against preventable diseases — to say nothing of its progress on the harder tasks, like changing what and how parents feed their children.
But as China itself has grown more prosperous, it has had its own struggles with health care, as the government safety net has shredded with its adoption of a more market-driven economy.
While India runs the largest child feeding program in the world, experts agree it is inadequately designed, and has made barely a dent in the ranks of sick children in the past 10 years.
The $1.3 billion Integrated Child Development Services program, India’s primary effort to combat malnutrition, finances a network of soup kitchens in urban slums and villages.
But most experts agree that providing adequate nutrition to pregnant women and children under 2 years old is crucial — and the Indian program has not homed in on them adequately. Nor has it succeeded in sufficiently changing child feeding and hygiene practices. Many women here remain in ill health and are ill fed; they are prone to giving birth to low-weight babies and tend not to be aware of how best to feed them.
A tour of Jahangirpuri, a slum in this richest of Indian cities, put the challenge on stark display. Shortly after daybreak, in a rented room along a narrow alley, an all-female crew prepared giant vats of savory rice and lentil porridge.
Purnima Menon, a public health researcher with the International Food Policy Research Institute, was relieved to see it was not just starch; there were even flecks of carrots thrown in. The porridge was loaded onto bicycle carts and ferried to nurseries that vet and help at-risk children and their mothers throughout the neighborhood.
So far, so good. Except that at one nursery — known in Hindi as an anganwadi — the teacher was a no-show. At another, there were no children; instead, a few adults sauntered up with their lunch pails. At a third, the nursery worker, Brij Bala, said that 13 children and 13 lactating mothers had already come to claim their servings, and that now she would have to fill the bowls of whoever came along, neighborhood aunties and all. “They say, ‘Give us some more,’ so we have to,” Ms. Bala confessed. “Otherwise, they will curse us.”
None of the centers had a working scale to weigh children and to identify the vulnerable ones, a crucial part of the nutrition program.
Most important from Ms. Menon’s point of view, the nurseries were largely missing the needs of those most at risk: children under 2, for whom the feeding centers offered a dry ration of flour and ground lentils, containing none of the micronutrients a vulnerable infant needs.
In a memorandum prepared in February, the Ministry of Women and Child Development acknowledged that while the program had yielded some gains in the past 30 years, “its impact on physical growth and development has been rather slow.” The report recommended fortifying food with micronutrients and educating parents on how to better feed their babies.
A World Food Program report last month noted that India remained home to more than a fourth of the world’s hungry, 230 million people in all. It also found anemia to be on the rise among rural women of childbearing age in eight states across India. Indian women are often the last to eat in their homes and often unlikely to eat well or rest during pregnancy. Ms. Menon’s institute, based in Washington, recently ranked India below two dozen sub-Saharan countries on its Global Hunger Index.
Childhood anemia, a barometer of poor nutrition in a lactating mother’s breast milk, is three times higher in India than in China, according to a 2007 research paper from the institute.
The latest Global Hunger Index described hunger in Madhya Pradesh, a destitute state in central India, as “extremely alarming,” ranking the state somewhere between Chad and Ethiopia.
More surprising, though, it found that “serious” rates of hunger persisted across Indian states that had posted enviable rates of economic growth in recent years, including Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Here in the capital, which has the highest per-capita income in the country, 42.2 percent of children under 5 are stunted, or too short for their age, and 26 percent are underweight. A few blocks from the Indian Parliament, tiny, ill-fed children turn somersaults for spare change at traffic signals.
Back in Jahangirpuri, a dead rat lay in the courtyard in front of Ms. Bala’s nursery. The narrow lanes were lined with scum from the drains. Malaria and respiratory illness, which can be crippling for weak, undernourished children, were rampant. Neighborhood shops carried small bags of potato chips and soda, evidence that its residents were far from destitute.
In another alley, Ms. Menon met a young mother named Jannu, a migrant from the northern town of Lucknow. Jannu said she found it difficult to produce enough milk for the baby in her arms, around 6 months old. His green, watery waste dripped down his mother’s arms. He often has diarrhea, Jannu said, casually rinsing her arm with a tumbler of water.
Ms. Menon could not help but notice how small Jannu was, like so many of Jahangirpuri’s mothers. At 5 feet 2 inches tall, Ms. Menon towered over them. Children who were roughly the same age as her own daughter were easily a foot shorter. Stunted children are so prevalent here, she observed, it makes malnutrition invisible.
“I see a system failing,” Ms. Menon said. “It is doing something, but it is not solving the problem.”
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

Slumdog Millionaire’s 8 Oscars Should Translate into Action for Children in India

2009-02-25T13:20:00.000+05:30

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Monday, February 23, 2009 -- (Business Wire India)

“Don’t just be entertained; do something,” World Vision India urges moviegoers as Oscars pile up and India celebrates.As Slumdog Millionaire, a movie depicting the challenges of ‘street children’ in India wins 8 Oscars today causing widespread jubilation around the country, World Vision India is calling for action that ensures children like Jamal, Salim and Latika are protected, educated and cared for.“While the film does a good job depicting the realities of slum life to a large extent, there are many more challenges these children are up against,” said Dr. Jayakumar Christian, National Director World Vision India. “Moviegoers should realize that poverty in India is a clear and present challenge for children in India —but there are tangible ways people can make a difference.”According to the agency, which has worked in India for 50 years, the following key issues facing impoverished children in India need urgent action against;-- Malnutrition: Recent government and civil society reports have pointed to the dismal state of child nutrition and survival in India. World Bank report estimates that malnutrition costs us $10 billion every year in terms of lost productivity. World Vision firmly believes that if we do not invest in children, poverty will never be history. World Vision’s call for proper implementation and allocation of appropriate funds will ensure that every child has nutrition security.-- HIV and AIDS: Statistics show that HIV prevalence in India has halved. However, the issues facing children are grim. These are children who are taking up the mantle of heading households at a tender age. These are the children who have poor access to health care or antiretrovirals. These children have the challenges of access to schools and health care and sometime even property rights. A comprehensive HIV and AIDS Act that addresses there challenges with a special focus on children is the need of the hour.-- Child Labour: According to the Census 2001, poverty has trapped over 12.59 million children in labour in India. Girl children are more vulnerable. World Vision believes that every child who is not in school is a sure candidate for child labour. The promise of compulsory education for girls and boys up to the primary level is the first step to keeping children out of child labour. We advocate the need for an extension of this benefit to the secondary level, with a special focus on girls. -- Education: Of all development interventions, education is known to be the most effective contributing to the transformation of communities, the next generation and breaking the inevitable cycle of poverty. Focusing on education, especially of girls works every time. More than 50 per cent of girls fail to enroll in school; those that do are likely to drop out by the age of 12. One of two Indian girls aged 6-18 has never stepped into a school. This is true in many of the over 5000 communities that we work in. This definitely underlines the need to enact the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill and also allocate 6% of the country’s GDP towards education.-- Protection: India’s child abuse report released by the Ministry of Women and Child Development department found that two in three of the over 12,000 children surveyed in 13 states across the country, have suffered some form of abuse. More than half of the children surveyed reported having been sexually abused. Speedy implementation of the Integrated Child Protection Services so that children grow up without fear is the urgent need.-- Natural disasters and climate change: Monsoon rains and flooding take lives but also destroy agricultural crops, which some 70 percent of Indians depend on to earn a living. A recent World Vision report warned of further steps needed to protect coastal communities in India its neighbors. Strengthening the response of communities to disasters through a strong approach of disaster preparedness and risk reduction is urgently needed in disaster prone areas.World Vision works in close to 50 slums like Dharavi, depicted in Slumdog Millionaire, as well as communities across the country, assisting street children, people living with HIV and AIDS, child labourers, migrants and families in need of clean water, sanitation, education and economic opportunities. “World Vision can attest to the fact that children have an amazing ability to overcome their circumstances, just like Slumdog Millionaire shows,” Dr. Jayakumar said, “and we’re asking people to partner with the children of India so that breaking out of poverty doesn’t have to be a one-in-a-million miracle.”

The public can donate or learn more by visiting www.worldvision.in About World Vision IndiaWorld Vision India is a Christian humanitarian organization working to create lasting change in the lives of children, families and communities living in poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, caste, race, ethnicity or gender. Spread over 150 locations in India, World Vision works through long-term sustainable community development programmes and immediate disaster relief assistance.Focus on Children: All development work we carry out is focused on building the community around children so that they have the opportunity to reach for a better future. Grass root Based: World Vision’s relief and development is community based. Our staff live with the communities at the grass roots, living with them, learning from them and working along with them to find solutions to issues of poverty.Partnering for Change: We partner with the people in their development, work with the Government and civil society to usher in a better and brighter future for India.World Vision has responded to every major disaster in India in the last few decades including the recent tsunami, Kashmir earthquake and the recent floods in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa and Assam. World Vision India is also member of the Planning Commission working group on women and child development and the NGO steering committee of the National Disaster Management Authority.

For press backgrounder on World Vision India click hereMedia contact details Joy Christina. R, Manager - Media Relations,World Vision India,+91 (044) 24807064 / +919840798734,Joy_Christina@wvi.org

A Roadmap to End Global Hunger

2009-02-25T08:49:00.000+05:30

Two years ago a coalition of humanitarian organizations began the process that has resulted in today's release of the Roadmap To End Global Hunger.
Today, representatives Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) and the Humanitarian Coalition came together to release the Roadmap to End Global Hunger. [pdf] The humanitarian organizations involved are Bread for the World, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, the Congressional Hunger Center, Friends of the World Food Program, Mercy Corps, Save the Children and World Vision. ''The United States needs a new strategy. Instead of playing defense, trying to lessen the impact of an individual crisis, we need to strengthen our offense and root out the underlying causes of hunger. The Roadmap is the right game plan at the right time to make this happen,'' says Helene D. Gayle, president and CEO of CARE USA, an internationally recognized expert on health, development and humanitarian issues. ''CARE favors humanitarian policies and practices that save lives and at the same time, help break the cycle of chronic poverty and hunger. One way to achieve this is by shifting to local purchase and cash transfers. These practices not only help feed the hungry, they also stimulate agricultural development and trade,'' says David Kauck, CARE senior technical advisor and an expert on food security issues.' The Coalition and Congress members are seeking to address a growing economic crisis that threatens to destroy the health and nutrition of millions of families worldwide. "Hunger is a tremendous problem, and it is not enough for our response to conditions of malnutrition, starvation and poverty to simply be well-intentioned. We must construct a complete response to hunger and script wide-ranging and proven-effective strategies. This Roadmap is a positive step that establishes commonsense waypoints so we can measure success at alleviating hunger and set good goals for the future. I'm glad to have Representative Jim McGovern and other colleagues by my side in the U.S. Congress who continue to work to raise the profile of this critical issue and implement solutions," said Emerson. The bipartisan legislation is expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks and it is anticipated to incorporate key recommendations of the Roadmap to End Global Hunger campaign. The Roadmap to End Global Hunger and the legislation will set forth a comprehensive and strategic plan that addresses world hunger in the short, intermediate and long term. The intent is to increase funding for key interventions needed to alleviate global hunger and ensure better coordination among existing U.S. government programs.

Corporate culture shock and the IT revolution

2008-12-29T10:13:00.002+05:30

By Robert Heller

Robert Heller is Britain's most renowned and best-selling author on business management. Author of more than 50 books, he was the founding editor of Management Today and the Global Future Forum. About his latest title, The Fusion Manager, Sir John Harvey-Jones wrote: "The future lies with the thinking manager, and the thinking manager must read this book". [more]

Back in 1990, a book I was commissioned to write by Rank Xerox was published. It was called Culture Shock: The Office Revolution.
I have to say that, before I began researching the book, I had no clear idea of where corporate culture might be heading as it absorbed all the frenetic developments of the Silicon Age.
But my revelation of revolution occurred in a Rank office in High Holborn, where I was shown a Chinese-born whiz-kid metaphorically crossing the Atlantic, travelling coast-to-coast to LA, and accessing a colleague's PC file to add his own input.
The conclusion to me seemed obvious. The networked PC was bound to conquer the world and revolutionise corporate culture across the globe. In particular, collaborative working suddenly had a whole new significance and potential. The subsequent advances have been massive across the board.
But back in 1990, many were blind to the revolution. Similarly, many didn't understand the significance of the World Wide Web when it was unleashed around three years after my book was published.
Even worse, many are still blind in 2008. Trouble lies ahead for them.
Directly linked to Wall Street's dot.com mania and downfall was ignorance of the real revolution. While Amazon was sneered at because it made no money for so long, there was a rush to invest in the day-dreams of con-men who lavished their venture capital on themselves up-front. Insane amounts were paid on the basis of 'hits' and 'eyeballs', and an unreal clientele was built up.
Unsurprisingly, most of these ventures ended in failure. No more surprisingly, those companies which operated in the real world with real markets, such as Amazon, stayed the course, making real breakthroughs and winning real rewards for their life-changing innovations. Competition had achieved total lunacy, as was the case with the sub-prime massacre years later.
The years that followed l990 were full of big disappointments (and vast ephemeral rewards) for followers of The Cult of Shareholder Value and The Cult of the Chief Executive. These two aberrations of corporate culture were naked invitations to maximise both the share price and the amounts which the boss could extract from the stock markets.
Regardless of all the fiascos and financial scandals, managerial IT is much fitter for purpose than it was in 1990 or 2000 – and so it should be. Those two Rank Xerox employees I witnessed working together while 7,000 miles apart represented forerunners of whole armies of collaborators, using shared and networked electronic information to remould their organisations, businesses and respective corporate cultures.
The Office is now everywhere and anywhere, and we're all home workers now. What's more, a worker's knowledge of what's actually happening inside their organisation and outside is much greater and gained much quicker.
The new cult is (or should be) the Cult of Collaboration, which I caught my first glimpse of in 1990.

Firms should co-create with customers: C.K. Prahalad (Interview)

2008-12-29T10:08:00.000+05:30

Chennai, Dec 25 (IANS) US-based management guru Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad says companies should join hands with customers to co-create products of value.”The role of the consumer has changed. Traditionally, companies create products based on their market research and exchange that for a value. But it has changed now, with customers equally involved in solving the problem,” Prahalad, 67, told IANS in an interview here. “Co-creation is not customisation, but it is personalised,” he said.
A professor at the University of Michigan and author of several books, Prahalad was in Chennai for an IIT alumni meet. He calls himself a serial entrepreneur and says his reputation is his risk capital.
“I generate ideas and sell them as books. If the ideas are of value to the customer, the book sells well or else it bombs. I risk my reputation,” said Prahalad.
Prahalad’s latest “risky” venture is “The New Age of Innovation”, co-authored with M.S. Krishnan that indicates corporates can co-create products by partnering with customers.
Increased connectivity, convergence of technologies, digitisation and creation of social networks, globalisation and ‘Googlisation’ of the world have thrown up an important challenge as well as opportunity for corporates across the globe, Prahalad said.
He said opening up borders for business increases competition but it also enables corporates to join hands with customers and co-create products of value.
But is not co-creation similar to the concept of open innovation?
“Open innovation is not necessarily co-creation as a company’s vendor may also contribute to the innovation. The concept is based on the principle that no single company has all the tools to innovate. So they will access others for innovation.”
For corporates to venture into co-creation, they have to have deep understanding of the product technology and the IT architecture. “The company’s managers should be able to anticipate and respond proactively.”
Agreeing that managers may not initially accept co-creation options, Prahalad said companies should train managers on the creation of new skills, develop suitable performance metrics to enable co-creation, and inculcate customer-centric focus.
He referred to the current global economic meltdown, saying, “Crisis is the time for nations and corporates to make fundamental change. In 1991-92, India faced the balance of payments crisis, which in turn resulted in the opening up of the economy.”
Though free market preaching countries are busy nationalising failed corporates, Prahalad said one ought not to “draw wrong conclusions” on the free market economy. “We need to strengthen the regulatory framework,” he said.
Prahalad also does not foresee foreign investors shying away from investing in Indian companies following the aborted attempt by software major Satyam to buy two companies run by sons of the promoter.
“Global investors are of the opinion that there is a reasonable level of corporate governance and one or two wrong incidents will not deter them,” said Prahalad.

Seven Questions: Jeffrey Sachs

2008-12-29T10:00:00.000+05:30

The global economy is in crisis, but there may be more hope for the poor than you think.

In the shadow of a financial crisis that has sent the U.S. stock market tumbling nearly 25 percentage points in the last month, the world’s finance ministers and central bankers gathered in Washington recently for an urgent discussion of how the economic peril will spread—and how to stop it. Days later, leaders from London to Berlin promised hundreds of billions in bailouts to embattled banks and financial institutions.
Throughout this crisis, there’s been much talk of how it is affecting Wall Street and Main Street. But only a few public figures, such as World Bank President Robert Zoellick, have sounded the alarm about how the credit crunch will hurt the poorest of the poor—people who may not have a street at all. So, FP’s Elizabeth Dickinson caught up with Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned economist and World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) advisor who has made his name with his passionate calls for an end to poverty. She asked him if he still thinks such an ambitious goal is possible and what world leaders can do to prevent the worst suffering.
Foreign Policy: Western finance ministers and central bankers were in Washington Oct. 11 to 12 for the IMF and World Bank annual meetings and to hash out a coordinated global strategy to deal with the financial crisis. How would you describe the mood?
Jeffrey Sachs: I think in general there’s fear, naturally. This is a very big financial upheaval and there are profound risks. We are far from out of the woods. Certainly, there will be a significant financial crisis as far as the real economy [is concerned]. Everyone is uncertain about what’s happening.
FP: U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wrote in the Wall Street Journal Oct. 14 that, “the tools are in place to respond effectively and with force.” Is he right?
JS: I think that it all depends on the terms. I don’t think we’re going to have a Great Depression, and we’re not going to have an outright crash where there are mass bank failures and bankruptcies. But we are going to have a deep recession. We will feel it, and it will be very painful. Unemployment will go up several points; the drop in growth will be significant in absolute terms. It will be prolonged, and it will be a difficult recovery because of all of the imbalances in the economy and because households have high levels of debt. The scale is a major recession of an economy that has business cycles. We’re going to have a meaningful-sized business cycle.
Other areas of the world are experiencing the crisis for lots of reasons—because their own banks did what U.S. banks did; because our monetary policy led to bubbles that spread; because their economies are dependent on imports. I don’t think it will lead to a worldwide downturn everywhere. China, for example, will continue to experience good growth during this period.
FP: As the crisis spreads around the globe, can you give us a sense of how it is affecting people in developing countries?
JS: I think the effects probably are ironically felt more in middle-income countries, because one of the attributes of the poorest countries is that they are more disconnected to the world system. Their banks are not connected and are very small relative to the economy. People don’t own stock, so they don’t lose their pensions. In middle-income countries like Brazil and India, there could be more substantial risks.
FP: At last weekend’s meeting, Robert Zoellick noted that 100 million people have been driven into poverty so far this year. Do you think that number will go higher?
JS: That crisis is a result of commodity prices, especially rising energy prices and higher fertilizer prices. It is not the result of this crisis, and I don’t think that the direct effects of this crisis will be significant.
The question of course is whether the crisis distracts [countries] from all of these [antipoverty] policy agendas, which is relevant and often a life-or-death issue. That’s obviously a real concern. My general take is that in good times or bad, it’s hard to get people to focus on these issues. I’m not sure [this crisis is] going to diminish from the low levels of focus we usually have.
I expect the whole attitude toward governance to change, especially if [U.S. Senator Barack] Obama becomes president. The days of laissez faire recklessness and greed are over, and the idea that government has responsibilities in the financial markets and to the poor and even to the world’s poor will become more important.
FP: You wrote on your blog, “The basic message of this week is that the world must find a new model of collective leadership following the collapse of US authority.” You seem to think a multipolar world will be better suited to combating global challenges such as poverty and global warming. But isn’t it equally likely that we end up with a power vacuum—no leadership at all?

JS: Well, this is what we’ve had over the past several years: The United States has abandoned its old role as system stabilizer. Really already in the Clinton administration that was true, but it was bravely accelerated in the Bush era where policies were neglectful.
I do expect China, the European Union, and other actors can play a responsible role especially on these developmental, climate, and global investment issues. But no one should expect U.S. leadership, only U.S. cooperation.
FP: Even if the financial crisis doesn’t touch the poorest of the poor, what about emerging economies such as Nigeria, Angola, and Kenya where the banking system, for example, was just getting on its feet? How will the crisis affect these places?
JS: Of course Nigeria fluctuates with the oil prices, and that’s also the case for Angola. Kenya is a lot more complicated because you have a more diversified economy. Its banks are not strong to begin with, and now the easy go-go days are [over]. But I don’t see that as a major loss for the development of these countries. They will have their work cut out for them in attracting serious investment, but it can remain possible in this setting. Linkages that can be forged with the United States, China, India, will continue to go forward.
FP: As president of the Millennium Promise Alliance, which aims to help countries reach the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015, you have spent a great deal of time advocating for increased foreign aid. With hard economic times hitting big donors such as the United States, Europe, and others, how much do your efforts need to change?
JS: The main point I have been trying to make is that promises are for less than 1 percent of income—which is true whether we are in a good year or a bad year. Less than 1 percent is manageable. These are commitments that we can afford. It’s important for the world, and I’ll continue to argue that case.
Second, the idea of $25 billion for Africa suddenly doesn’t sound like so much after a $700 billion bailout in the United States or $2 trillion in bank guarantees in Europe. We’ve just been making choices to ignore the poor rather than calculations based on real resources available. We made a choice to let millions of people die and not honor our commitments. The crisis doesn’t change our quantitative ability to follow through. And now, I think everyone is more of a macroeconomist than they were before. They can evaluate for themselves that it’s just not a lot of money compared to the amounts mobilized in recent weeks.
Third is that one of the core strategies is looking at multiple donors, not only traditional donors in the United States and Europe. The Middle East can and should put in more money; China can and should put in more money. We are going to see those connections grow, to the good of everyone.
Jeffrey Sachs is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (New York: Penguin Press, 2008).

Will the Economic Crisis hit Asia Harder than the U.S.?

2008-12-29T09:54:00.001+05:30

By:Michael Mandel {Michael Mandel, BW's award-winning chief economist, provides his unique perspective on the hot economic issues of the day. From globalization to the future of work to the ups and downs of the financial markets, Mandel-named 2006 economic journalist of the year by the World Leadership Forum-offers cutting edge analysis and commentary.}
The latest news out of Asia is not good. On December 26 the Japanese government announced that factory output fell by more than 8% in November, the biggest drop in 55 years. Toyota—now the world’s largest automaker— expects to report its first annual operating loss since World War II. And Chinese exports are down over the past year, the first year-over-year decline since 2001.
What’s happening is that the global economic crisis is moving into its third stage. The first stage hit finance and housing. In the second stage, the downturn spread to the real economy in the U.S.
Now, with consumers cutting back around the world, the downturn has jumped to the exporting countries in Asia. And it’s not just China and Japan—countries such as Taiwan and Thailand are seeing sharp plunges in merchandise exports as well.
What’s more, there may be no easy answer: Without the housing and credit bubble in the U.S., there may be a long-term glut of global manufacturing capacity. The major exporting countries in Asia can produce far more electronics, clothing, and cars than their own populations can consume, at least for now.
The key question is: What happens next? One possibility is that fiscal stimulus—in the U.S. and around the world—will boost demand and get consumers buying again. Then the Asian factories can get back to work.
Alternatively, the global manufacturing glut will turn out to be real and persistent, even with the stimulus. Prices for imported goods will fall and fall and fall, because there are simply too many factories around the world. After all, how many flat screen TVs do we really need?
For workers in the U.S. who still have a job, this drop in prices could be a bonanza. But as factories around the world shut down, the result will be devastation in manufacturing-dependent regions.
In the end, it may turn out that the worst effects of the global economic downturn will be felt in countries which are dependent on manufacturing. China, especially, will find out how much of its economic boom was real, and how much was credit-fueled. The answer may not be pretty

Amartya Sen blames crisis on lack of regulation

2008-12-20T12:38:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: On his flight to India, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was asked by at least three or four co-passengers about how India would be affected by the global economic downturn. Sen admitted that he did not have a ready answer. But speaking at an international conference organized to celebrate his 75th birthday, he said on Friday the present crisis has come about from an "over-reliance on markets" and not enough regulation. Another speaker at the conference, American economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, was highly critical of the role of the US in the economic crisis. "The US has exported its toxic mortgages. If this had not happened we would be even worse off. We have also exported our deregulation policy." He added that decoupling was a myth and that the US was now "exporting its recession". According to Stiglitz, September 15 the day when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy was a black day in the history of capitalism. "September 15 will be to free market economics as Berlin wall is to the fall of Communism. Market fundamentalism doesn't work. The idea that markets are self-correcting is flawed," he said. He said there were several inferences that could be drawn from the economic crisis: Wall Street has made several bad decisions and has repeatedly failed; prices are bad signals for resource allocation; and though the G7 has been expanded to G20 old paradigms were still at work. For Stiglitz, this wasn't just a crisis of capitalism but a crisis in how we approach economics. He said, "Sen's work which is about increasing the well-being of human beings is important here." Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released a two-volume collection of essays dedicated to Sen. "We have known each other since the days we were both students at Cambridge. I certainly have always felt that Amartya even in those days gave one the impression that here is an individual who is going to make a lot of difference to the way people think about their problems and he has lived up to that expectation," he said. "The response of the developed countries to the challenges of our times, be it financial crisis or climate change or terrorism, shows that they have no monopoly on good ideas. We in the developing world wish to work with the developed, but we have to find our own ways to deal with these challenges," he added.

Climate change: India needs a timebound policy paradigm

2008-12-20T12:35:00.000+05:30

Jaidee Mishra, ET Bureau

THERE’S much talk of action to counter climate change, or so it seems. While the UN climate change jamboree, in Poznan, Poland, ended last week in a flurry of declarations and announcements, the domestic policy process to cope and negate the effects of climate change seems to be longdrawn and elaborate when it comes to pious intentions and objectives, but woefully short on specifics and timelines. The National Action Plan on Climate Change does call for chalking out concrete policy proposals for the various sub-missions, by December 31. But India’s stated principle of “common but differential responsibility” in coping with the effects of green-house gas emissions and consequent global warming may well stultify policy revamp. Instead, what’s required is proactive climate-change policy to innovatively remove poverty when it comes to everyday energy usage, and rev up efficiency of energy systems right across the board. The subsequent payoffs would be huge indeed. In parallel, what’s needed is initiative to summarily improve the methods and data available for policy analysis in the domain of the environment and apparent climate change in the offing. Let us set up a premier body such as a National Centre for Environmental Economics–complete with a vigorous programme of publishing working papers, for better informed policy design. In tandem, widespread energy poverty and poor efficiency levels in energy supply and logistics need to be addressed. Imperative is forward-looking policy to better diffuse alternate, sustainable energy resources such as solar and wind power. Such a policy stance would concurrently reduce emissions of green house gases (GHGs), with the relative decline is the usage of fossil fuels , the main source of additional GHGs in the atmosphere. The latest UN meet does call upon member governments to diffuse ‘green,’ environmentally-friendly technology and to “promptly initiate and expeditiously facilitate the preparation of projects for approval and implementation...” too. If only things were so simple! When it comes to actual policy implementation and follow through, far from being sanguine, there would be a host of rigidities on the ground. So instead of hoping for “manna from heaven” and green technology easily available off the shelve, what’s required is a suitably conducive policy environment to step up investments for requisite diffusion and development of hardware, skills and knowledge in the domestic tariff area, preferably with heightened FDI flows. The UN communiqué does also–in a somewhat grandiose manner–mention the Special Climate Change Fund, and besides “welcoming the outcome of pledging meeting of potential donors” to the corpus, goes on to note that $60 million “have been pledged” for the purpose. For what is supposed to be a global fund, it’s much too small and inconsequential. In the midst of a severe global economic slowdown, there are of course a panoply of other, more pressing concerns for governments. But the point remains that resource mobilisation for climate change would need to be largely and perhaps overwhelmingly domestic, especially for a large, turnaround economy like India. Hence the need for appropriate policy design. However, it does not necessarily follow that the monies for climate change would need to be budgeted from scratch. The fact of the matter is that tens of thousands of crores are already spent each year on open-ended energy subsidies, with the questionable objective of boosting usage of fossil fuels. So what’s needed is vision to prioritise expenditure and policy induce sustainable, less fossil-fuel intensive energy. Specifically, what’s needed is a scheme to diffuse such alternative energy aides as solar lamps and well-designed cookers, and pay for it by limiting and withdrawing subventions on account of kerosene, cooking gas and agricultural power. As various pilot studies show, such a policy substitution would quickly pay for itself and so effectively bring down energy subsidy levels. It would also hand-in-hand do much to remove energy poverty and stepup fuel usage as well. There remains the need to increase thermal efficiency in our power plants, which would be more capital-intensive than the change over required for domestic sustainable energy resources. Power plants emissions are the single largest source of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent GHG. But here again, the prospect of generating up to a third more power from practically the same amount of coal ought to be attractive enough for corrective action. And suitable changes in power policy can better coagulate funds for high-efficiency, super-critical boilers and the like. The point is that the environment is the basis of all activities, be they ecological, economic or social, and it would make policy sense to strive for less degradation even as we boost newer energy resources. The future after all begins now!

JAYA KUMAR CHRISTIAN: collections

2008-12-15T18:56:00.003+05:30

I have seen many visitors in this blog visiting to read on Jaya Kumar Christian. I am a great fan of this wonderful development thinker. I have collected quite a number of his articles which is in pdf format. If you are interested to get one you can simply leave a comment on this write up. I will certainly send one to you free of cost.

UN cuts food aid, as widespread starvation takes hold

2008-11-15T11:06:00.000+05:30

By Alex Bell
As millions of Zimbabweans fight a daily battle against hunger, malnutrition and disease, and as the need for humanitarian assistance daily grows, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said this week it has been forced to cut its life-saving food rations.
The UN has predicted that up to 5 million people will face starvation as soon as January, because of widespread food shortages and the devastating effect of the crash of the local currency. The government, in a shocking act of cruelty, only partially lifted a ban on crucial foreign aid recently and the trickle of food aid that has returned to the country means countless numbers of men, women and children have already died from lack of food. The true number of deaths may never be known.
The food crisis is affecting all sectors of life, and even boarding schools across the country have been forced to shut their doors early because there is no food to give students. Schools were scheduled to shut down for the festive season in early December but authorities at some boarding schools last Friday ordered all Form one, two, three and five students out of school, citing the overwhelming food crisis. Only students writing their ‘O’ and ‘A’ level examinations have remained, but it unclear what they are being fed, if they are being fed at all.
The lives of countless more people now hang in the balance after the WFP announced on Tuesday that it is facing a serious funding crisis and it has already been forced to reduce its aid.
“WFP still requires US$140 million to fund its operations in Zimbabwe until the end of March 2009 - with a shortfall of approximately 145,000 tons of food, including 110,000 metric tons of cereals and 35,000 metric tons of other food commodities,” the agency said in an update detailing its first month of large-scale distributions in October.
A WFP spokesman, Richard Lee explained on Wednesday that there is “currently no food in the pipeline for distributions in January and February”, a period when the food crisis is set to reach its peak and when almost half the population will need urgent food assistance. The WFP said it aims in November to distribute around 46,000 tons of food to more than 3.3 million people under the “vulnerable group” feeding programme and around 600,000 under the safety net programmes, but the organisation said it will not be able to provide every beneficiary with a full food basket. The November cereal ration has been cut from 12 kilograms to 10 kilograms per person per month and the pulse ration from 1.8 kilograms to one kilogram for all “vulnerable group” beneficiaries and for people receiving take-home rations under the safety net programmes.
“These cuts will allow WFP to stretch its available resources as far as possible but they will leave greater numbers more malnourished and more susceptible to disease,” Lee explained, saying the group is very concerned by the numbers that will be left hungry. He added that the group is confident it can “reach and provide aid for the predicted numbers of Zimbabweans next year” but said this will depend of receiving sufficient donations to make up the current shortfall.

Worst of Food Crisis Approaching: Going Long In The Midst of Panic Selling

2008-11-15T11:03:00.001+05:30

by Jared Irish of Archer Financial Services

The wave of selling fear and forced liquidation has sent grain prices along with everything else plunging to impressive lows. Grains prices as measured by the DJ-AIG sub index are now over 50% off their highs from just a few months ago. At this time most investors are running for the streets in panic calling for all markets to return to prices not seen since the ice age. However, those investors who have the nerve to position themselves over the next couple of months will probably be handsomely rewarded over the next couple of years. It is often said that if you hear a lie enough times, you will eventually believe it. If you watch “Bubble Vision,” everyday you will hear the term “Global Demand Destruction!” People are returning to pre-historic times and will soon live in caves again. They will no longer drive, fly, eat, heat their homes, and use electricity. They are primarily focused on demand here in the United States, and continue to ignore the 685 billion people on the other side of the planet. They fail to realize that demand is merely slowing at a time when production and inventories of most commodities are falling off a cliff. You will continue to hear that the Federal Reserve can bail out institution after institution. They can print trillions and trillions of dollars and they can do all of this without impacting the credit worthiness of the U.S. government and value of the U.S. Dollar. Thanks to the global credit crisis, farmers around the world are having trouble getting the credit they need for next year’s crop. They do not have the financing they need to for the land, fuel, equipment, fertilizer and labor. Furthermore, input costs are still relatively high. Farmers need grain prices to come up just to break even. Marino Colpo, a large soybean producer in Brazil said that they require at least $10.50 soybeans to break even. He also said that production in Brazil is likely to drop this coming season because farmers are unwilling to plant at a loss. Thanks to the plunging grain prices induced by the credit crisis, we will see farmers around the world cutting back on production. This is at a time when global grain inventories are already near historic lows. William Doyle, president of Potash says that even with slowing demand growth they will need to produce record crops just to maintain adequate stocks.Global grain inventories will get tighter as farmers are unable and unwilling to produce grains at a loss. This could eventually send grain prices higher and switch the attention of the mainstream media from the credit crisis to the food crisis and famine. Feel free to contact me for information and research to help you invest in commodity futures and options including the grain markets. I can be reached at 1-877-377-7936 or you can email me at http://www.insidefutures.com/articles/out.php?a=87326&u=http%3A//m3.tradersmedia.com/www/delivery/ck.php%3Fbannerid%3D2834 .

Seasons of Hunger: Forward by Robert Chambers

2008-11-14T15:48:00.002+05:30

FOREWORD TO SEASONS OF HUNGER

by Stephen Devereux, Bapu Vaitla and Samuel Hauenstein Swan

foreword by Robert Chambers

Of all the dimensions of rural deprivation, the most neglected is seasonality. Vulnerability, sickness, powerlessness, exploitation, material poverty, under- and malnutrition, wages, prices,
incomes…these are recognised, researched and written about, But among them again and again seasonality is overlooked and left out.

Yet seasonality manifests in all these other dimensions and in how they interlock. This is almost universal for poor people, but especially so in the rural tropics. There, during the rains, poor people are repeatedly oppressed and screwed down by a cruel combination of lack of food, lack of money, high food prices, physical hardship, hard work vital for survival, debilitating sicknesses such as diarrhoeas and malaria, and isolation and lack of access to services. It is then that they are materially most poor, most vulnerable, most powerless, most exploited, most isolated, and most short of food. It is then these dimensions most tightly interlock and reinforce each other. It
is then that poor people suffer most and are most vulnerable to becoming poorer.
It is also when they are most invisible. Integrated seasonal poverty is matched and mirrored by integrated professional ignorance.Professionals anyway focus on their own specialised disciplinary concerns and miss linkages with those of others. This is compounded when all professions overlook seasonality. They do not see the stark and cyclical reality of the seasons when deprivations collide and hit poor people simultaneously. So research, reports and recommendations repeatedly omit the seasonal dimension. Papers published on rural poverty in the tropics often never mention it. I have never once read or heard it in the speech of a policy-maker. It is simply missing from most professionals’ and policy-makers’ mental maps.

The reasons are not far to seek. We development professionals are season-proofed - insulated and protected by our housing, air conditioning, fans and heaters, clothing, urban facilities, incomes, food supplies, protection from infection, and access to health services. Often we gain impressions most from rural elites, but as this book points out, while seasonality is bad for the poor it can be good for the rich. We are also season-blind – we travel least at the bad times during the rains and before the harvest, and when we do, stick more than ever to tarmac and places close to town. Except in full-blown famines, we rarely encounter or perceive the regular seasonal hardship, hunger and starvation of remoter poor people. Cyclical seasonal hunger is quiet and hidden. When the rains are over, the harvest in, and people are through the worst,
urban-based professionals travel again and venture further afield. Their impressions are then formed at the best times, missing the worst.
This book is a powerful corrective. It brings a new perspective and proposals for action that are new in their scope and focus. It shows how central seasonality is to the creation and deepening of
deprivation. The case is made, irrefutably, that seasonal hunger is the father of famine and that famine cannot be stopped unless seasonal hunger is stopped.

What is so shocking is the evidence of how policies have made it worse. In earlier decades, in many countries, with parastatal marketing boards, people in remote areas were entitled and able to buy seed and sell crops at fixed prices which did not vary by season. With enforced liberalisation and the abolition of the boards, the poor people in those areas, and elsewhere, lost that protection and were once again exposed to cruel seasonal fluctuations in prices. The market did not serve them. It exposed them. Liberalisation made poor people poorer, and created conditions for famines in bad years.

The situation cries out for action. Drawing on their experience and research, Devereux, Vaitla and Swan show what has to be done. They bring together proposals for a raft of workable measures for social protection. Agricultural livelihood development is basic. Social protection measures include: nutritional and food security surveillance; community-based management of acute malnutrition, and home-based care; cash and food transfers; seasonal employment programmes; social pensions; child growth promotion; and crop insurance schemes. And these are costed. The question becomes not whether they can be afforded but whether if governments, lenders and donors who are serious about poverty can conceivably not afford them.

To end seasonal hunger, rights and power are crucial. This is shown by India’s employment guarantee schemes. Poor people must have rights to make demands. There must be an enforceable right to food. The persuasive argument put forward is for a “fundamental transformation in the political obligations around hunger”.

This book is a wake up call. After Seasons of Hunger, things should never be the same again. It should be required reading for all development professionals – political leaders, officials, those who work in governments, aid agencies and NGOs, academics, researchers, teachers, local leaders and others –all who are committed to the fight against poverty. For all those who share that commitment, it is a ‘must’. Let us in future always find ‘seasonality’ in books, articles and reports on poverty. In committees, meetings and reviews of policy and practice, and in research, let there always be someone who asks and presses the question: “And what about seasonality?” Let that crucial, pervasive, cross cutting dimension never again be overlooked or ignored. To achieve that, we have to start with ourselves, our own perceptions and priorities. To make poverty history, we have to make seasonal blindness history.
The development community has a huge, historic opportunity. It is precisely because seasonal deprivation has been so neglected that it now presents such immense and wide-ranging scope for attacking poverty. Any development professional serious about poverty has now, more than ever, to be serious about seasonality. May the right to food be recognised. May the measures advocated here be adopted. And so let us banish the hidden obscenity of quiet seasonal starvation from our world and make seasonal hunger history.

Seasons of Hunger shows how.
29 May 2008 Robert Chambers

Drought-like situation in Orissa's Ganjam district

2008-11-11T11:48:00.000+05:30

Inadequate rainfall during the kharif season has led to drought-like situation in Orissa's Ganjam district as several thousand hectares of paddy crops experienced moisture stress.
Preliminary reports of the state agriculture department said that moisture stress had been noticed in about 15,036 hectares, mostly cultivated in high land areas.
However, sources claimed that over 50 per cent of crop had already withered due to lack of rain and irrigation facility.
The district experienced less precipitation this year except in August-September. In October there was a meagre 27.40 mm rainfall against 177 mm last year causing moisture stress, official reports said.
Normal rainfall was essential in October for bumper kharif crop.
Last year, there was 1298.19 mm rainfall against noraml rainfall of 1275.29 mm in the district.
Altogether 22.35 lakh hectares had been covered for paddy cultivation in the district and the yield was 7,83,368 metric tonnes.
The department had set the target to produce 7,85,795 metric tonnes of paddy this year, the sources said, adding if the present situation continued for a week more, the yield would drastically reduce.
The blocks facing moisture stress included Rangeilunda, Sanakhemundi, Digapahandi, Kukudakhandi, Bhanjanagar, Chikiti, Patrapur, Ganjam, Chhatrapur, Buguda, Jagannathprasad, Khallikote and Belaguntha.

VIOLENCE IN NANDIGRAM :Children in the crossfire

2008-11-03T08:39:00.002+05:30

Shoma Chatterji
23 October 2008 - A public agitation in any area inevitably leads to disturbances of routine activities. This can be difficult enough for adults, who must cope with changes to their employment routines, scheduling purchases for their homes, etc. But for children, the uncertainties and resulting losses can be even more harsh, as routines are particularly important to them. In long-draw-out agitations, the negative impacts can be especially severe, cutting off access to schooling, and in the process closing the door on many opportunities in the future.
In the politics surrounding Nandigram, the impact of the events on children has been completely ignored. In view of this, Child Rights and You (CRY), and its dynamic team of seven youth volunteers drawn from Kolkata, Gandhinagar ad Hyderabad, embarked on a unique survey of the children of Nandigram to assess the impact of the disturbances that began there in January 2007, in particular during the three months immediately thereafter. Their report, while motivated by a special concern for the affected children, has tried to be as objective as possible in assessing human rights with special reference to the rights of the child.
This is the first status report of its kind on child victims of the proposed industrialisation of Nandigram, and the resultant displacement caused by forcible land acquisition. Case histories of affected children, and conditions of the schools in the area point out how the rights of the childred have been ignored or violated. The media and the public have focussed constantly on political issues and on human rights violations directly linked to these political issues. Mental health conditions, as well as schooling and living conditions of the children in the aftermath of the violence on March 14 have received far less attention - if any - in the press.
Condition of schools in Nandigram
Schooling in Nandigram has understandably been affected by the disturbances. Classes are not held regularly. Science practicals are held in the open grounds, while policemen occupy the laboratories. Police camped themselves in Gokulnagar High School after March 14, a government-aided school, and the only high school in Nandigram. The situation in this school is the most pathetic of all. The police pollute the environment by cooking their food here, and do not clean up properly afterward, leading to accumulation of garbage. The toilets, which too the police use, are not properly cleaned; this has created a stench making it difficult for the children to sit in the classrooms. There is also a water crisis, as the police use a lot of water for bathing, washing and so on. Letters sent out to the administration including the Chief Minister and the Home Minister asking for the police to be removed were not responded to.
Moreover, the constant presence of the police on the premises and even the sports grounds keep the children in a constant state of fear and tension. The students do not hold any grudge against the policemen, as they understand that the policemen must follow orders but they still find it hard to come to terms with the situation. The policemen try to maintain a friendly relationship with the students, but in vain. Grades of top rankers have declined after the tragedy. A few students were forced to leave Gokulnagar High School because their results in the annual examinations had been below par. They could not study for the examinations. Students from Gangra, one of the worst affected areas, are particularly vulnerable and many of them have stopped attending schools.
Schooling in Nandigram has understandably been affected by the disturbances. Classes are not held regularly. Science practicals are held in the open grounds, while policemen occupy the laboratories.
The student register of Maheshpur High School shows a student-strength of around 770. It is a government-aided school, part of the funds coming from Sarva Siskha Abhiyan. Students can take the Madhyamik (Clss X) board exams from this school. Every year, about 50 students appear for the public exam, said the headmaster (but this could not be verified, as he declined to show the team his register). During the team's visit, a disruptive crowd was present on the premises that refused to budge. The team members spoke to the headmaster, three teachers and some students. The annual school examinations scheduled to begin on March 14 had to be postponed twice as a result of the incidents on that day. Though the headmaster had arranged to announce the postponement in neighbouring villages, many students could not take the exams for fear, nervousness and tension in the entire area.
The children
Bikash Mondal, 10, and his sister Pompa Mondal, 8 studying in Class V and Class III respectively at Sonachura Prathamik Vidyalaya lost their father Bharat Mondal. Bharat is one of the first casualties of the struggle - on the night intervening 6 and 7 January he was killed, allegedly by a group of CPM cadres who also killed Biswajit Maiti, Bhudeb Mondal, Sk. Salim, and Bishnu Maiti. Pompa, who went back to regular school from May, 2007, is so confused that she does not remember whether she has taken her annual examinations or not. When asked about her father's death, she clams up at once and grows tense and quiet.
She did not witness her father's death and was not allowed to see his corpse before his cremation. But his loss seems to have affected her deeply. She has not been able to cope with the shock four months after the tragedy. Each time she thinks of him or hears about him, she chokes up and turns mute. Some incidents between January and February last year have been wiped out from her memory.
Her brother Bikash says that the sound of gunfire and bombings were so disturbing that his family was forced to spend many nights in the open fields. He resumed schooling some time after his father's death. His performance in his exams, he said, was not good because of the terror. (He used the word santrash to speak of terror.) In his opinion, the CPM was responsible for the bombings and the firing adding that these party cadres, and their supporters made no secret of their political affiliations. When asked about his father's death, he began to cry. His father worked as a hired farm labour. The family owns very little land. Even at this tender age, he has begun to worry about providing for his mother, sister and grandmother, now that his father is no more. He wants to study well, he says, adding that though the situation is under control, there is tension in the air.
Shivaprasad Mondal, 16, lives in Gangra and studies at Gokulnagar High School in Class XII. His brother Ramchandra is a leader in the Bhumi Uchchhed Protirodh Committee (BUPC â€“ Committee for Resistance to Eviction from Homeland) formed on January 5. He was close to a CPM leader Joyshokor Pyke and took shelter in his house during the worst violence. The CPM men alleged that Shivaprasad was informing the BUPC about their actions, as his brother was a BUPC leader. The CPM men followed him around as a strategy to place pressure on his older brother by threatening Shivaprasad. He informed the school's Head Master and Managing Committee but they could not do anything.
He had to take exams by staying at friends' homes close to the school. Months later, he still takes a detour because he is scared of encountering CPM cadres on the direct route through Tekkhali Bagan. He said that of the former batch of around 169 students who cleared the Class XI exams, 50-60 do not attend school any more. Besides, as the police were camping on the school premises, the students are facing space problems and are not able to study properly.
Shivprasad does not support either the BUPC or the CPM. He is caught up in a political fray between two organisations and this is hampering his studies and depriving him of a home. He is forced to move from one friend's house to another's in order to ensure his safety and schooling. He admits that this has taken a toll on his health and his studies. Even today, when tensions have decreased, he is scared to move freely in his own area. This has restricted his movement and his freedom.
Eight-year-old Abhijit Maiti is the kid brother of Biswajit Maiti, 12, who was killed on 7 January. His mother is still in shock over her son's death. The child could not tell us anything about his brother's death, as it had not registered in his mind. He could not understand the questions the team asked him, was very nervous and said that his brother continues to haunt him at night. The shock of his brother's sudden death and the tension in the area has taken a heavy toll on the tender mind of this eight-year-old boy. He has problems understanding things and situations.
Sushanta Pal, 12, is an eyewitness to the sequence of events that took place on 14 March last year, culminating in the police firing on villagers. He has stopped going to his high school in Sonachura after that day. He recalls his parents tell him on the night of 13 March, that the police would try to enter Nandigram the following day. During the Gouranga Pooja, he was right near the ditch on the Nandigram side of the bridge, as he lives near Talpatti Khal. While the pooja was on amidst huge crowds, he saw about 45 cars carrying policemen draw up on the Khejuri side of the bridge. They ordered the crowds to disperse for their own safety. When the crowds paid no heed to the warnings and went on with the pooja, the police fired rubber bullets and teargas into the crowd followed by random firing, injuring many.
He claims to have seen five people die. Along with some of his friends, he ran away from the Tekkhali Bridge. None of them were hurt in the police firing but once the police crossed over from Khejuri into Nandigram they did not spare even the children. He saw the police grab a child from its mother and kill the little one. Till this day, he says cannot bear the bright sun as his eyes begin to burn because of the teargas the police used that day. He left school. He feels mentally disturbed with the incessant noise of bombing and gunfire from Khejuri that takes away his attention from studies. He cannot sleep properly at night. Along with the men in the family, he keeps watch at nights even now.
He has chosen not to attend school anymore firstly because the school authorities refuse to take responsibility if and when any violence takes place; secondly, because he has taken on the responsibility of his five sisters and one brother. He hardly meets his brother who studies in a boarding school in Khejuri because they are scared to cross the bridge. Though he could not prove his claim, he insisted that the policemen were wearing chappals which real police would never do and could recognise some CPM cadres among them in police uniform.
The vocabulary of these children now has words like shilpo (industrialisation), santrash (terror) and proshashon (administration). Six-year-old Mamoni Bai knows the word shilpo, but to her it means displacement and land-grabbing. Proshashon is synonymous with the police and santrash the children understand as something dangerous. Most of these words have negative implications for them.
The CRY team of volunteers - Chiranjib Paul, Nikita Jhunjhunwalla, Oishik Bagchi, Priyanka Mukherjee, Poulomi Saha, Ramanika Nandy, Rohan Saha and Sukanya Bhaumik - were appalled by what they uncovered during the survey. Every rule on child rights has been violated with impunity as if it does not exist. The report, says the team, "is our immediate response addressing the urgency of the situation and the demands that need to be met."
The volunteers have no political affiliations and the survey was solely aimed at detecting violations of the human rights of children in the area. Their report has taken several months to be compiled, but despite this, it is revealing. Moreover, the impact on children is universal and timeless. The scars will remain, the nightmares will continue and the child victims' understanding of industrialisation will have been warped forever by the conflicts in which they and their families have been caught up. ⊕
Shoma Chatterji Dr Shoma Chatterji is a freelance writer based in Kolkata, and a member of NWMI. She is the author of 16 books, including 'Kali - The Goddess of Kolkota' and 'Gender and Conflict'.

CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT ON FOOD SECURITY

2008-11-01T13:28:00.001+05:30

Adopted by the South Asian Civil Society Forum on Responding to Food Insecurity in South Asia 23‐24 October 2008, Kathmandu, Nepal
Organizers: South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), Nepal;
Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) ‐International, India; and Oxfam (novib), The Netherlands

We, the participants of the South Asian Civil Society Forum on Food Security, view that the Triple 'F' Global Crises—Fuel, Food and Financial—have been affecting the global economy as well as posing a range of complex challenges for South Asian countries in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including the goal of halving the number of poor and hunger, and the "SAARC Development Goals".
We note that the global fuel prices have fallen significantly of late but there is no assurance that prices will stabilize, and will not adversely affect the food security situation in South Asia. We believe that while the rise in food prices will continue to adversely affect the region and to create further challenges in the form of widespread poverty and food insecurity, the worsening global financial crisis threatens to perpetuate food insecurity, by, inter alia, diverting the attention of international donor agencies and governments from the agenda of food security.
We recognize that South Asian governments have taken the food security issue seriously but it is high time for them to initiate effective collaborative actions for addressing the food security concerns from the human rights perspective, both nationally and regionally, and redesign their policies on agriculture, food security and trade.
We welcome the outcome of the 15th SAARC Summit that was concluded this August in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The main Declaration of the Summit and a separate "Colombo Statement on Food Security" indicate that SAARC Member States are willing to make concerted efforts for addressing the food insecurity challenges facing the region.
Taking note of these developments and supporting the willingness of the Member States to devise and implement "people-centered short- to medium-term Regional Strategy and Collaborative Projects" for ensuring food security in the region, as well as the decisions made for the operationalization of the SAARC Food Bank, and the drawing up of SAARC Agriculture Perspective 2020, we met to discuss various food security issues ahead of the Meeting of the SAARC Agriculture Ministers to be held in New Delhi on 5─6 November 2008.
Based on the deliberations and discussions made at the forum, we came up with the following recommendations (some of which are cross-cutting) on different thematic areas, which we consider to be important for SAARC Member States to integrate into their regional strategies, collaborative actions and projects, and Agriculture Perspective 2020.
*SAARC Food Bank*
In order to effectively and efficiently operationalize the Food Bank:
• Make an institutional arrangement for periodic estimations of food demand; and undertake measures to increase the storage capacity of the Member States.
• Relax the withdrawal conditions and the replenishment requirements of the bank by taking into account the national capacity of the Member States.
• Set up a Central Information System (e.g., websites for real time data sharing); and form a SAARC Food Security Monitoring Committee, including civil society representatives, and also task this committee with the role of: making arrangements for a regional mapping of vulnerable regions and populations, as well as preparing a vulnerability calendar for the effective distribution of food and response systems. Such regional food mapping can also guide the concerned authorities to establish community food centres which are needed mainly to enhance access to food in remote and inaccessible areas.
• Set up a Negotiation Committee for price determination and a Dispute Settlement Mechanism to resolve disputes concerned with the bank's operationalization.
• Agree to authorize Parliamentary Committees of the Member States to look into its operational issues for wider political support and cooperation, as well as contribute ideas for the effective operationalization of the bank.
• Work out detailed procurement modalities in addition to ensuring timely, localized and transparent procurement as well as rationalization of procurement prices. Ensure that public-private partnership be an integral part of the procurement modality.
• Utilize the SAARC Development Fund to facilitate the procurement process.
• Make distribution systems responsive to regional and seasonal food insecurity, as well as non-political and non-partisan.
*Production and Productivity*
• Promote the exchange and testing of varieties/seeds within the region keeping in consideration the similarities and diversities of agro-ecological zones. Bilateral and regional contracts and agreements between and among the Member States should be implemented to facilitate the access to and exchange of varieties/seeds, which is currently being restricted in the region in view of the emerging concerns relating to Access and Benefit Sharing and Intellectual Property Right (IPR) Regimes.
• In this regard, establish a "SAARC Seed Bank", linking it with "national seed banks" (the creation of which is also important) as well as "community seed banks" (which are already under implementation in several countries of the region) so that it ensures an effective long-term mechanism of production, exchange and use of community- and environment-friendly quality seeds that are in the domain of public and private sector organizations as well as farmers. The bank will also contribute to agriculture research (breeding) and promote the sharing of seeds and technologies that are critical for developing new varieties/seeds and promoting the conservation of agricultural biodiversity.
• Promote the cost-effective intensification of agriculture and invest sufficiently in agriculture research, extension and infrastructure for, among others, strengthening crop diversification and management techniques; arresting soil degradation (e.g., salination); and strengthening effective post-harvest loss management.
• Implement collaborative projects to encourage farmer-to-farmer exchange as well as partnership activities with scientists, breeders and other private sector groups (such as through participatory plan breeding projects).
*Bioenergy and climate change*
• Establish a Technical Working Group to:
o undertake a stocktaking exercise of bioenergy technologies and research capacities with a focus on technologies that are not competing with the use of food production.
o prioritize and adapt available technologies for pilot projects on bioenergy, building on experiences and strengths of the SAARC Member States.
o develop short- and long-term research priorities for regional collaboration on the development and dissemination of bioenergy technologies, with a possibility of adding liquid biofuels in the long-term perspective.
• Invest in research and development projects to identify and adopt cost-effective technologies needed for mitigation of climate change effects on food security and agriculture, and develop regulatory policy frameworks that can help mitigate and adapt to climate change, including an early warning system.
• Establish a South Asian Climate Change Fund to also support activities in response to intensifying climate change impacts on food security and agriculture.
• Develop a regional agenda to advocate the reduction of subsidies, tariffs and other distortive trade measures on liquid biofuels in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries through the World Trade Organization (WTO).
• Lobby for time-bound commitments and actions from developed countries for transferring energy-efficient, low-carbon technologies to South Asian countries through the Clean Development Mechanism.
*Trade and Biotechnology*
• Make time-bound commitments and actions in the area of transit and trade facilitation, and harmonize customs rules and regulations as well as product standards and quality (such as sanitary and phytosanitary, and technical standards) with adequate institutional arrangements for facilitating food procurement and trade.
• Promote intra-regional trade in farm products by de-listing some of the farm products from the negative list under the Agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area in a phase-wise manner or on a trial basis, and remove para-tariff and non-tariff barriers to agriculture trade. This is also essential to strengthen the procurement mechanism required for the effective operationalization of the SAARC Food Bank.
• Protect small and marginal farmers from cheap subsidized imports but at the same time, also develop strategies to boost farm exports from the region.
• Agree not to apply food export restraints to the Member States.
• Make commitments to institutionalize the process of the involvement and participation of non-state actors in trade negotiations at the national, regional and international levels, and while signing trade agreements, including trans-regional bilateral trade agreements, do not agree to conditions that adversely affect the food security interest of the region.
• Develop Regional Framework/Guidelines on the application of biotechnology as well as bio-safety measures so as to ensure that the outcomes are community- and environment friendly.
• Develop Regional Framework/Guidelines on Genetically Modified Organisms, keeping in consideration the interests of both consumers and producers, as well as the implications for the environment and the natural resource base.
• Work in unison to ensure that global negotiations in agriculture and related issues such as intellectual property rights (IPRs) are made supportive of the agricultural development thrust of SAARC countries and demand that they be allowed to exercise the right to protect their agricultural sector through, for example, the Special Safeguard Mechanism being negotiated at the WTO.
*Agricultural Biodiversity and Intellectual Property Rights*
• Promote community-based biodiversity management (CBM) systems and practices for the protection of farmers' rights to seeds, genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, and for the strengthening of tripartite partnership among the public, private and community actors and agencies.
• Recognize and implement programmes and projects such as Participatory Plant Breeding, Community Seed Banks, Community Biodiversity Registers, Home-gardens, and Value Addition and Marketing, including of neglected and underutilized species.
• Create a Regional Network of community seed banks so as to facilitate the exchange and use of seeds in the region.
• Form a Regional Intellectual Property Expert Committee to look into the IPR affairs and issues, and develop a Regional IPR Policy, taking into account the national capacity of developing and least-developed Member countries.
• Develop common positions on IPR issues for negotiations at the international forums such as at the level of the WTO and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), taking into account the interest of both developing and least-developed Member countries.
• Develop Regional Framework/Guidelines on "Plant Variety Protection" and "Access and Benefit Sharing" Regimes to ensure an effective implementation of farmers' rights over farmers' varieties as well as IPR-protected varieties so as to bring into implementation effective domestic (sui generis) regimes to safeguard farmers from the onslaught of IPRs. Such regional framework must take into account the provisions of relevant international instruments—such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture—and importantly, the special and differential treatment of the least-developed countries (LDCs) at the WTO.
• Make institutional arrangements and implement collaborative projects to assess the potential of benefiting from the geographical indication (GI) registration of agriculture products, for example, by undertaking economic and export feasibility research and studies on potential products of the region.
*Role of SAARC Observers, and International Actors and Agencies*
• Observer nations should develop strategic community-centered action plans to support regional strategies and collaborative projects of SAARC, as well as the drawing up and implementation of Agriculture Perspective 2020, and also to provide concrete support to the effective operationalization of the Food Bank and the early warning system.
• More coordinated efforts should be made by developed countries, the United Nations High Level Task Force on Global Food Crisis, and institutions such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank and the WTO for financial, logistical and technical support, and technology transfer.
• Support for trade-related infrastructure, particularly to deal with sanitary and phytosanitary and technical barriers to trade, for increased farm exports from SAARC, as well as for favourable market access opportunities, including meaningful and beneficial duty-free and quota-free facilities for the LDCs, must be an integral part of their programmes and packages.
• The global financial crisis should not be used as an excuse for bilateral and multilateral donors and developed countries to withdraw commitments on the assistance required for food security.
*ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS*
*SAWTEE (South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment)* is a regional network that operates through its secretariat in Kathmandu and 11 member institutions from five South Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The overall objective of SAWTEE is to build the capacity of concerned stakeholders in South Asia in the context of liberalization and globalization. SAWTEE's network institutions in five South Asian countries are: Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association (BELA), Dhaka, and Unnayan Shamannay, Dhaka in Bangladesh; Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG), Chennai, Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), Jaipur, and Development Research and Action Group (DRAG), New Delhi in India; Society for Legal and Environmental Analysis and Development Research (LEADERS), Kathmandu, and Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public), Kathmandu in Nepal; Journalists for Democracy and Human Rights (JDHR), Islamabad, and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad in Pakistan; and Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Colombo, and Law & Society Trust (LST), Colombo in Sri Lanka (www.sawtee.org).
*CUTS (Consumer Unity & Trust Society)* was a small voluntary group of concerned citizens operating out of a garage on a zero budget in 1983. Currently, it operates out of five programme centres and five resource centres— six in India: three in Jaipur, one in Kolkata, and one each in Chittorgarh and Delhi; two in Africa: Lusaka, Zambia and Nairobi, Kenya; one in London, the UK and one in Hanoi, Vietnam, with a staff strength of over 85. CUTS' work is divided into six programme areas: Consumer Protection; International Trade and Development; Competition, Investment and Economic Regulation; Human Development; and Consumer Safety. Over 353 individuals and 300 organisations are its members. The organisation is accredited to UNCTAD and UNCSD. CUTS also works with several national, regional and international organisations, such as Consumers International (CI); ICTSD; SAWTEE; the Consumer Coordination Council (CCC) of India, etc. It also serves on several policy-making bodies of the Government of India (www.cuts-international.org).
*The Nederlandse Organisatie voor Internationale Bijstand, or Oxfam Novib*for short, was set up on 23 March 1956. Prince Bernard was its first chairman. Oxfam Novib, a member of Oxfam International, is fighting for a just world without poverty. Together with people, organisations, businesses and governments. Through projects and lobby. Locally and internationally. Because poverty and injustice are global problems. They are about unjust economic and political relationships (www.oxfamnovib.nl).

The EU must send troops to Congo now

2008-11-01T13:01:00.000+05:30

Written by: Chris Chapman
Probably the most toxic aspect of the current conflict in North Kivu is that, as in Iraq and Sudan and other countries, the protection civilians get from violence often depends on which ethnic group they belong to.
The FARDC - the national army - has fled Goma, unable to stem the advance of Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP). The UN peacekeeping mission is desperately calling for more resources, and in the past has been accused of failing to protect civilians.
In this security vacuum, leaders such as Nkunda are able to play on the grievances of their communities to recruit militias, even if their real motivations are about controlling mines and trade. Nkunda says he is fighting because of the abuses his people, the Tutsi, have suffered.
The Tutsi do have legitimate grievances, notably they have been the victims of a number of pogroms in the 1990s. But they certainly do not have the monopoly on suffering in North Kivu. To cite one example, the Mbuti Pygmies, an indigenous people in the Kivus and Ituri, has no militia to protect it; it has been targeted by armed groups, and subjected to massive human rights violations - torture, displacement and the rape of women and children.
The grievances of the Tutsi cannot justify the abuses committed by the CNDP: it has used rape on a massive scale as a tool to terrorise civilian populations, and mass graves of civilians have been found by MONUC, the UN mission in the DRC, in areas recently vacated by the rebel group. More recently, the group has been using refugee camps to launch attacks, in clear contravention of international law.
UN forces are well placed to provide security in North Kivu, because what is desperately needed is a security force that is perceived as neutral. It clearly needs strengthening, but the international political will to do so appears to be weak.
In response to a French proposal earlier this week to send additional European Union troops, British Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch-Brown said, "we cannot rule out an additional deployment ... but I think it is too early to say that is necessary ... and whether it would arrive in time is also questionable". It's too early, but it may also be too late; a classic piece of diplomatic equivocation, and the result is likely to be that nothing is done.
Faced with another human catastrophe, we are yet again throwing up our hands in powerlessness. It is imperative that the EU approve the French proposal, and send troops to North Kivu within days; it was for this kind of situation, after all, that EU battle groups were proposed in the first place. Even if they arrive too late to protect Goma, there is no reason to assume that Nkunda will stop there.
However in the long term, the only way to stop these conflicts from re-occurring will be by addressing their root causes. There has been a succession of peace agreements between Nkunda's forces, other armed groups and the DRC government.
But, like so many peace agreements, these have only addressed the visible part of the conflict iceberg; the immediate violence. What is needed is for the government to address grievances over illegal land seizures, by establishing a transparent judicial process to review claims. Economic opportunities must be improved by loosening the grip of the militias on import/export income and mines.
The Congolese army needs to become a professional, impartial force that provides security to all communities, including the most vulnerable, by integrating the various militias. In so doing, the militia brigades must be broken up and dispersed, otherwise they carry on waging the same wars in different uniforms.
Finally, and most importantly, the Rwandan and DRC governments need to stop using proxy militias to fight for control over North Kivu and its resources; if they fail to do this, they risk an inflammation of the conflict that may finally destabilize Rwanda and cause the Balkanisation of the DRC.

1 million flee Congo fighting, U.N. says

2008-11-01T12:32:00.000+05:30

(CNN) -- About 1 million people have been forced to flee because of fighting between rebel and government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday, adding that it was investigating reports of camps being looted and torched.

Children eat bread and porridge at a camp for displaced people 12 kilometers north of Goma in Congo.

A rebel spokesman said they were keeping to a cease-fire so aid can reach displaced Congolese.
Babou Amane, deputy spokesman for the National Congress for the Defense of the People, said rebel forces had retreated to about 9 miles (15 kilometers) north of the city of Goma to create a "humanitarian corridor."
Despite a rebel cease-fire declared late Wednesday, security in Congo's North Kivu province was tenuous, with many aid organizations refusing or reluctant to venture out to help the homeless, authorities said.
About 50 medical personnel from Medecins sans Frontieres can move throughout the area relatively unobstructed and supplies are getting in, said Marie-Noelle Rodrigue, the agency's local emergency coordinator.
"Security is a concern, of course," Rodrigue said from Goma, the provincial capital. "For the moment, we have not been stopped by anybody."
Thousands of displaced residents are on the move and Medecins sans Frontieres has mobile clinics dispensing water and any other needed aid, Rodrigue said late Friday.
"We're trying to move with the people," Rodrigue said. "We're setting up mobile clinics where ever they are."
There have been some isolated cases of cholera but no epidemics or other major health concerns, Rodrigue said.
"For the moment, it is still under control," the 40-year-old nurse said.
David Miliband, the foreign minister of Britain, and his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, were heading to Congo and neighboring Rwanda on Friday, their offices said. France holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, which is considering its options, officials have said.
In addition, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked Alain Leroy, the undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, to travel to the region, the organization said.
European Union Commissioner Louis Michel was in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, on Friday and obtained "verbal agreement" from Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congo President Joseph Kabila to attend an emergency summit on the crisis to be held "in Nairobi [Kenya] under auspices of the United Nations," EU spokesman John Clancy said.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it was investigating reports that some camps for displaced persons had been "forcibly emptied, looted and burned," according to a written statement.
In a written statement, the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees spokesman Ron Redmond said Friday afternoon, "UNHCR staff in Goma this morning reported the situation calm but tense. Our office is open and our people are working, but security restrictions on movement remain tight."
He said rebels controlled Rutshuru, where UNHCR has an office. Rutshuru is 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of Goma, the provincial capital.
Redmond said the UNHCR was trying to verify "disturbing reports" from "humanitarian partners" about attacks on the camps near Rutshuru.
"We are extremely concerned about the fate of some 50,000 displaced people living in these camps, which include the UNHCR-administered sites of Dumez, Nyongera and Kasasa as well as several makeshift settlements," he said.
Rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda said Thursday that he ordered a cease-fire for his forces because he wants start work with the U.N. mission in Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC, to allow people back to their homes.
"We are respecting our cease-fire. ... We are waiting for the response [to the corridor offer] from the government and from MONUC, the U.N. forces," Nkunda said. "We want to have an agenda that we can discuss political issues with the government."
Nkunda, a Tutsi, has repeatedly blamed the Congolese government for failing to protect the Tutsi tribe from Rwandan Hutu militia in Congo. Hutu rebels have been active in the jungles of eastern Congo since Rwanda's 1994 genocide, according to the United Nations.
The United Nations estimates that during the 100 days of the genocide in Rwanda, the Hutu majority killed 800,000 Tutsis and and moderate Hutus.
The top U.S. diplomat for Africa said Friday that she was encouraged that the deadly conflict won't grow into "something that looks like genocide."
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer spoke to CNN International by phone from Kigali, Rwanda, Congo's neighbor, where she planned to meet Saturday with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Frazer, who visited Thursday with Congo President Joseph Kabila, was making diplomatic rounds to deliver a U.S. message: "We understand the need for the Rwandans and the Congolese to work together to try to end the human crisis that's unfolded in North Kivu, as well as to cooperate together to address the negative forces in the eastern Congo."
One of the negative forces, she said, is the National Congress for the Defense of the People rebel force led by Nkunda, which fought government forces for four days until a cease-fire was declared late Wednesday.
Frazer said she would impress upon Kagame the need for continued cooperation between Rwanda and Kabila's government.
"Eastern Congo is very, very unstable right now. ... There have been attacks and counterattacks between rebels and the Congo military," she said.
Asked about the possible danger that the rebels could overrun Goma, Frazer said tensions seemed to be lessening.
"But I am growing confident that both President Kabila and President Kagame have been speaking to each other.
"They've exchanged envoys. ... They are engaged in the type of discussions that will be necessary to prevent such an attack on Goma as well as some type of ethnic reprisal that could lead to something that looks like genocide."
Frazer said the United States also recognizes the limitations of MONUC, whose soldiers have lent support to Congolese troops.
The United States has said for some time that they need more troops and specialized forces, even for a limited time while diplomatic measures are being pursued, she said.
On Thursday, MONUC spokesman Kevin Kennedy said U.N. troops, numbering a few hundred, were struggling to keep the peace in Goma, a city of about 1 million people, and the surrounding countryside.

Law and poverty: the legal system and poverty reduction

2008-10-30T08:32:00.002+05:30

Cause and effect: exploring the relations between law and poverty Authors: L. Williams; A. Kjönstad; P. Robson Publisher: Comparative Research Programme on Poverty , 2008
Full text of document
Poverty tends to be considered as an economic subject area rather than a legal one. And yet, a society’s distribution of income and opportunity is the outcome of its legal system which may encourage or fail to prevent various forms of marginalisation. Even when individuals are responsible for their poverty, modern notions of citizenship enshrined in national and international law entitle them to various forms of state protection. Under these circumstances, the law becomes an instrument for redistribution. Much of this work is still cutting-edge but a start was made at a workshop held in Onati, Spain in 1999 which aimed to explore the theme of “Law and Poverty”. The twelve papers presented at the workshop are now reproduced in a book brought out by the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP) of the International Social Science Council. The book is divided into four sections which look into:
>poverty as a legal construction
>the responsibility for alleviating poverty
>establishing legal entitlements
>legal initiatives to address poverty

The paper titles comprise of:
>the right to development as a basic human right
>cross-border reflections on poverty: lessons from the United States and Mexico
>poverty as a violation of human rights: the Pinochet case and the emergence of a new paradigm
>the politics of child support
>the state, laws and NGOs in Bangladesh
>exclusion and rights
>poverty and property – human rights and social security
>the effect of legal mechanisms on selective welfare strategies for needy persons: the Greek experience
>gender mainstreaming as an instrument for combating poverty
>does alcohol and tobacco legislation help reduce poverty: the evidence from Sri Lanka
>child labour: a threat to the survival of civilization
>labour organization and labour relations law in India: implications for poverty alleviation
The book comes to the following broad conclusions:
>improved understandings of and approaches to poverty require broad analysis that takes into account different angles, frameworks and lenses
>while poverty is culture and nation-specific, it also has an increasingly important global >dimension which needs to start being taken into account
>support initiatives for poor people are more powerful when framed as citizenship rights – >particularly in the context of social exclusion and gender inequality
>more effective poverty reduction in an age of globalisation requires reconsidering traditional >distinctions between public and private areas of responsibility

Climate change: feed it and weep or lead and reap

2008-10-29T14:16:00.000+05:30

Jeffrey Sachs
Australia will reap important benefits from the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Properly, the Government has left itself considerable flexibility on several points, which will depend heavily on what other countries do. But the value of the scheme lies not in the details but in three more basic considerations. Australia can now lead economically, technologically and diplomatically in the global effort that lies ahead.
A global climate control regime is on its way. It will almost surely not be a global emissions trading system, but a regime in which participating countries commit to national targets implemented through national means. The Government's proposals can work whether or not global trading comes to pass.
Until now Australia, like the United States, has absented itself from a carbon policy. Some may have viewed this as clever "free riding" on the exertions of others, but that view was short-sighted and wearing thin. A global system will come, and the laggards will face sharper economic dislocations than those who have taken a running start.
In the US, for example, the financial sector has basically stopped financing conventional coal-fired powerplants. Nuclear power is also a huge question mark for market financing, given public worries and the lack of an agreed national strategy. The automotive industry, long betting on cheap oil and a lack of public interest in climate change, is flat on its back. Australia will spare itself the risks of backing into a stalemate on energy technology and infrastructure investment by charting a course consistent with long-term climate change mitigation.
Emissions trading can support the transition to sustainable energy in Australia but will surely not be enough, a fact acknowledged by the Government's initiation of complementary programs such as the Climate Change Action Fund, to spur the adoption of innovative energy technologies.
Transformative technologies, such as carbon capture and sequestration at coal-fired power plants, large-scale solar power, plug-in hybrids, green buildings and perhaps nuclear power, are even more important in achieving a low-cost transformation.
Australia stands to benefit enormously by speedier action on technological development and demonstration. As the world's largest coal exporter, and as a continent with vast solar potential, Australia could find itself a sustainable energy technology leader in just a few years. I think the same could be true about nuclear power in Australia, despite the obvious grounds for public reservations.

One of the greatest benefits from the Government's new initiative will be geopolitical. Australia needs to be at the global negotiating table, not only to defend its national interests but also to help broker the global grand bargain. There is probably no world leader better placed than Kevin Rudd to help intermediate the complex pas de deux that will begin between China and the US next year. Only a solid agreement between the two largest emitters can underpin global actions beyond mere gestures.
China will have to understand that it can no longer hang back and call on rich countries to lead first. China is already rich enough, and emitting enough, to bear major global responsibilities. In any event, the US Senate will not ratify an agreement that puts US industry at a competitive disadvantage. At the same time, China will not move unless it sees a way to combine its continued rapid economic growth with emissions restraint.
Since Australia and China are close neighbours and major trading partners, and share such basic challenges as coal-based power sectors, increasing water stress and solar potential, Australia is especially well placed to help identify global principles and a technological pathway that can accommodate the concerns of China, the US and Europe.
I don't subscribe to every detail of the green paper. I would have leaned more heavily on upstream carbon taxes than downstream carbon permits as the way to put a market price on carbon with least administrative difficulty and most long-term predictability. I am more sympathetic to nuclear power. But Australia has taken a huge step forward to protect its economy, its fragile climate-stressed ecology, its long-term technological leadership and its geopolitical role.
Jeffrey Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and a special adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, on the Millennium Development Goals. He is author of Common Wealth: Economics For A Crowded Planet.

Why no bailout for the hungry?

2008-10-29T14:04:00.000+05:30

Could all those bailout billions been put to better use? How about feeding poor, starving people?
From the Washington Post:
"The amount of money used for the bailouts in the U.S. and Europe -- people here are saying that money is enough to feed the poor in Africa for the next three years," said Stephen Muchiri, head of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation.
No question: On its face, there is an obscene disparity between the trillions of dollars that will be spent by Western governments to keep financial markets from breaking down and the paltry $12.3 billion pledged in July by governments and other donors in Rome to tackle the world food crisis. Even just in the United States, the Department of Energy appears to see little problem with loaning GM $5 billion to purchase a nearly worthless Chrysler, but the White House couldn't find the cash to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program from $5 billion to $12 billion a year so as to cover everyone. These are the kinds of funding gaps that drive caring people insane.
But suppose that the U.S. and various European governments had decided not to bail out their banking systems, and in consequence, credit markets completely collapsed and world trade ground to a halt. It's quite possible that global poverty and hunger would drastically worsen. If farmers have no access to credit, they are unable to pay for seed and fertilizer and labor. If shipping companies have no access to credit, food doesn't move across the oceans. If enough banks collapse, mass unemployment is sure to follow.
I do not mean to privilege one form of spending over another. I think one of the clear lessons from the efforts of governments to address the financial crisis is that when properly motivated, political leaders will throw astonishing amounts of money at a problem. If we can find $700 billion to bail out our banks, surely we can fund national health care and end starvation. But it's also not an either-or question. We would all likely be worse off, in Africa and the United States, if the wheels came completely off the global economy.
― Andrew Leonard

It's Time for Poverty to Have the Spotlight

2008-10-29T14:01:00.000+05:30

by Chelsea Wieber
After a few fumbled attempts on their own, global financial leaders gathered in Washington D.C. last weekend to develop a joint plan to prevent the spread of the financial crisis.
Imagine if they focused just a fraction of that attention on alleviating global poverty. After all, high food and fuel prices pushed an additional 75 million people further into poverty this year.
"When food prices peaked and began to come down, despite the fact that conditions within poor countries remained hugely adverse, attention already started to wane," development economist Jeffry Sachs told Reuters. By contrast, the world's finance ministers jumped to commit incredibly large sums of money when credit markets started to fail — a crisis that continues to hold the world's attention.
"The amounts that are needed (to help the poor grow more food) are in the low billions of dollars and we're talking every day now about a new commitment of hundreds of billions for this and hundreds of billions for that," says Sachs. "The truth about poverty is that the poor don't need very much."
In other words, $700 billion — or whatever the astronomical total the worldwide bailout turns out to be — would go a long, long way.

The Real North Korean Crisis

2008-10-29T13:57:00.000+05:30

by Manasi Sharma
When you think of North Korea, you may first think of the ongoing nuclear weapons debates and political squabble with the U.S. Yet according to the latest United Nations report, the most significant problem affecting North Koreans is the current shortage of food there.
The UN report found that more than three-quarters of North Korean families have cut their food intake to two meals per day. Even city dwellers are facing higher food prices. A recent Time magazine article says many children have stopped attending school due to hunger, while their parents search for food instead of going to work.
North Korea hasn’t seen such a devastating food crisis since the 1990s, when a famine took more than a million lives. Time blames the government for the current food shortage. In the 1990s, government officials privatized food distribution to some extent so that farmers could sell grains and food throughout the country. The result was that famished North Koreans could still find food. But in 2005, according to Time, the government broke up these markets and confiscated grain from farmers, leading to the current shortfall of production. Destructive floods in 2007 further hampered the country's agricultural production.
The UN also reported a rising number of children suffering from malnutrition and diarrhea. The food crisis guarantees more hunger-related deaths according to an expert on North Korean economy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
North Korea’s leadership does not want to pursue market reform according to Nicholas Eberstadt, a North Korea expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. He says allowing open markets to emerge in the state dominated food distribution sector would imply a significant change of Pyongyang’s policies. Major reforms are not a part of North Korean culture or government, a regime that requires government permission to own a cell phone or computer. However, without changes in policy and perhaps even ideology, North Koreans will continue to experience health-related problems if the government is unable to provide basic necessities such as food.
The World Food Program has expanded their food aid program in North Korea in hopes of reaching 6.5 million people. Without additional help from donor countries, North Koreans may see the 1990s famine repeat itself.

World Vision warns of looming food crisis in southern Africa

2008-10-29T13:53:00.000+05:30

Christian relief and development agency World Vision has warned that there will be no long-term fix to the impending food crisis in southern Africa unless the international community unites to combat its root causes.
“As we mark World Aids Day, the international community must focus its attention on the looming food crisis in southern Africa, whilst also addressing its long-term causes – including the Aids pandemic currently devastating countries such as Malawi and Zambia,” said World Vision policy adviser Stephen Doughty.
The appeal from World Vision comes as world leaders meet in New York this week to discuss the impact of soaring food and fuel prices on developing countries.
World Vision Emergency Officer, Nick Wasunna, was recently in Zimbabwe where he encountered the effect of high Aids infection rates on the food crisis.
"I saw queues of people at food distribution centres," he said, in a report on the agency’s website. "After talking to them you discover they are all affected in some way by HIV.
"The impact of HIV/Aids across the region cannot be underestimated," he continued.
"When a family cannot work or grow food because carers are sick or dying from Aids, the problems facing them and their community are severely compounded. Children, especially girls, drop out of school as they are required to look after dying family members.”
The long-term consequences, he said, would be a persistently “uneducated, unskilled and poverty-stricken generation” and less development.
World Vision launched an emergency appeal on Wednesday to assist the 12 to 14 million people it says are facing hunger across southern Africa, most seriously in Malawi and Zimbabwe.
On the web: www.worldvision.org.uk

In India, Global Crisis Is Not All Bad News

2008-10-29T11:43:00.000+05:30

By Rama Lakshmi
GURGAON, India -- In the mortgage crisis that has enveloped much of the Western world in recent weeks, Manoj Malhotra's outsourcing company sees an enhanced business opportunity.
As lenders in the United States and Europe move to firm up loans, sharpening quality control and fraud verification, the Gurgaon-based company that Malhotra heads has designed a Web program to help them do just that.
"The loan processing industry needs less of manual intervention and subjectivity and more of technology-based solutions, especially in the current climate," said Malhotra, who launched the program at a mortgage industry conference in San Francisco last week.
His company, Salient Business Solutions, is not the only one in this country to see opportunities and lessons in the global financial meltdown.
Indians working in information technology and outsourcing have long shared a joke: "When America sneezes, our industry will catch a cold here in India."
But as the credit crisis drags down the U.S. economy, India's booming technology and outsourcing industry is taking steps to boost its resistance to infection. Taking the crisis as a warning, it is hastening efforts to reduce dependence on U.S. and European companies, scale up high-end products and services, find new ways of billing and move beyond merely leveraging the low-cost, English-speaker advantage. (washingtonpost)

Financial Meltdown Worsens Food Crisis

2008-10-29T11:36:00.002+05:30

As Global Prices Soar, More People Go Hungry(washingtonpost)

By Ariana Eunjung Cha and Stephanie McCrummen

SHANGHAI -- As shock waves from the credit crisis began to spread around the world last month, China scrambled to protect itself. Among the most extreme measures it took was to impose new export taxes to keep critical supplies such as grains and fertilizer from leaving the country.
About 5,700 miles away, in Nairobi, farmer Stephen Muchiri is suffering the consequences.
It's planting season now, but he can afford to sow amaranthus and haricot beans on only half of the 10 acres he owns because the cost of the fertilizer he needs has shot up nearly $50 a bag in a matter of weeks. Muchiri said nearly everyone he knows is cutting back on planting, which means even less food for a continent where the supply has already been weakened by drought, political unrest and rising prices.
While the world's attention has been focused on rescuing investment banks and stock markets from collapse, the global food crisis has worsened, a casualty of the growing financial tumult.
Oxfam, the Britain-based aid group, estimates that economic chaos this year has pulled the incomes of an additional 119 million people below the poverty line. Richer countries from the United States to the Persian Gulf are busy helping themselves and have been slow to lend a hand.
The contrast between the rapid-fire reaction by Western authorities to the financial crisis and their comparatively modest response to soaring food prices earlier this year has triggered anger among aid and farming groups.
"The amount of money used for the bailouts in the U.S. and Europe -- people here are saying that money is enough to feed the poor in Africa for the next three years," said Muchiri, head of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 923 million people were seriously undernourished in 2007. Its director-general, Jacques Diouf, said in a recent speech that he worries about cuts in aid to agriculture in developing countries. He said he is also concerned by protectionist trade measures intended to counteract the financial turmoil.
Although the price of commodities has come down in the past few months, Diouf said, 36 countries still need emergency assistance for food, and he warned of a looming disaster next year if countries do not make food security a top priority.
"The global financial crisis should not make us forget the food crisis," Diouf said.
Commodity prices have plummeted in recent weeks as investors have shown increasing concern about a global recession and a drop in the demand for goods. Wheat futures for December delivery closed at $5.1625 on Friday -- down 62 percent from a record set in February. Corn futures are down 53 percent from their all-time high, and soybean futures are 47 percent lower.
Such declines, while initially welcomed by consumers, could eventually increase deflationary pressures -- lower prices could mean less incentive for farmers to cultivate crops. That, in turn, could exacerbate the global food shortage.

Evaluation of African organic farm products-export programme

2008-10-28T16:40:00.001+05:30

This evaluation of an organic agricultural products export programme,in Africa, may be of interest to readers. The complete booklet isdownloadable from the SIDA website and from:http://www.grolink.se/epopa/Publications/Epopa-end-book.pdf

Extract from Executive summary pasted below.
Export Promotion of Organic Products from Africa. An evaluationof EPOPAseries: Series - Sida Evaluationissn: 1401-0402isbn: 91-586-8864-1format: Booklet
EPOPA is a programme for development of production and export ofdifferent organic products from Africa. It is a trial and researchprogramme and comprises three projects in Uganda and two in Tanzania.The rationale of the evaluation was to consider the programme fromdifferent aspects such as the EPOPA concept, achievements of theprojects, the performance of the different actors as financier,consultants, exporters, field officers, small farmers etc. Based onthat draw conclusions and make recommendations.
Executive SummaryThe Export Promotion of Organic Products from Africa (EPOPA) programmewas initiated in the mid-1990s by Sida. In the period 2002 to 2007 itwas considerably scaled up and subsequently phased out in 2008. Itoperated in Tanzania and Uganda and briefly in Zambia. EPOPA was a"development through trade" programme with the objective of improvingthe livelihoods of rural communities through exportsof organic products. Exporters were the main partners and theprogramme worked directly with them to develop exports of organicproducts. In addition, the programme worked to support emerginginstitutions in the organic sectors.A summary of key data for the export projects in Tanzania and Ugandashows that farmers have sold organic products for approximately US$15million per year and the total export value is more than double thatamount. A total of 110,000 farms have participated, but only 80,000have actively delivered products to the exporters. Considering thesize of households, it means that some 600,000 peoplehave been beneficiaries of the programme. The cost of the programmefor the Swedish taxpayers is one cup of coffee per taxpayer....Some projects are yet to reap the benefits from EPOPA support, as theyare not yet certified and therefore can't access the organic market.EPOPA leaves behind a very vibrant organic sector in Uganda and anestablished sector in Tanzania; 30 export projects in operation;consolidated organic movements; internationally accreditedcertification bodies in Uganda and Tanzania; and finally a largenumber of people with increased understanding of organic agricultureand capacity to develop the sector. In Zambia EPOPA worked too short atime to make any strong impact.In order to set up a successful export project, there was a need tofind the right mix of the following:– a willing and capable exporter– a production base, i.e., willing farmers in an area with suitableconditions and basic knowledge of production– market demand– products that could be competitive in quality and priceHardly any funds were made available for investments or otherincentives for the participating exporters. The focus of the programmewas to create viable business,and EPOPA assisted the actors through awide range of services, from farmer and field officer training tomarketing and certification.The participating farmers were smallholders. Most of them were"organic by default"'; i.e., they used almost no agrochemical inputsbefore participating in the programme. Organic farming itself posedfew problems for the participating farmers. Despite the great varietyof crops and the large number of farmers, there were no insurmountableproblems in the production or with pests.There were expectations from the project implementers, Agro Eco andGrolink, that the farmers would respond to the project by theimplementation of all the positive features of organic farming(improved crop rotations; better nutrient recycling; cover crops andgreen manures and soil conservation) but that didn't happen to a verysignificant extent. Farmers experienced improved food security,largely as a result of increased income, as well generally improvedlivelihoods, as demonstrated by improvement in housing, childrenattending school, and investments in farming.A number of projects were very successful; some were moderatelysuccessful; a handful completely failed. Reasons for failure includedlack of commitment from the exporter or the owners of the company;problems in food processing; a vanishing resource base (for thefishing projects); and management problems. Successfulprojects featured a well-managed and committed company, good fieldwork, and farmers seeing the exporter as a partner and a good market.Generally, EPOPA was more successful in Uganda than in Tanzania. Thisis attributed to implementation and management factors, but it ismainly the case that logistics and geography are more challenging inTanzania and that Uganda has more enabling policies and a betterbusiness climate.EPOPA worked very little with the governments, although towards theend of the programme this changed and EPOPA participated in theorganic-policy development of the countries. The importance of propergovernment policies is felt by the organic sectors in East Africa. Itconcerns both the lack of supportive policies,but perhaps even morethe existence of policies that are harmful to development.Therefore, a programme like EPOPA, despite its private-sector focus,also has to engage in policy dialogue and action.The continued strong demand of organic products and the increasedpolicy support contributed to the success of EPOPA. Other importantsuccess factors were:– Clear market focus of the projects and focus on tangible results;using commercial actors to link farmers to markets– Integrating extension work into the commercial chain so that theexporters are responsible for extension work, financed by income fromthe trade– The use of group certification to facilitate the certification processCentral to the implementation of the projects was the establishment,by the exporter, of a field organization for extension work and forinternal control of issues related to certification. All in all, thefield organization worked, but most of its energy was absorbed bycertification issues, and the efficiency of the agronomic advice inmany of the projects can be questioned. This is not a main interest ofthe exporter.A main challenge to the programme was finding competent and committedexporters. The organic market represented something new for theexporters, and it took quite a while to adjust to. Project periodswere three years, but this clearly was too short in most cases;agricultural projects need longer time in general. Extensionswere awarded mainly to improve the sustainability of the venture.Value addition in developing countries is an appealing proposition,but it is not always so easy to do. Many of the projects that includedvalue addition experienced big challenges, inparticular regarding product design and imported packaging materialsand inputs. In most of the projects, large groups of farmers wereinvolved, and they did experience a substantial increase in income,expressed as a percentage. However,especially for those producingbasic commodities, the increased income was not sufficient to liftthem out of poverty. For farmers producing high-value crops, suchas cashew, fresh fruits, and spices, the increased income issubstantial in absolute terms also.The support to emerging institutions, such as local certificationbodies and national organic movements, was successful. There are noworganic standards and internationally accredited certification bodiesin Tanzania and Uganda and the national organic movements are involvedin local market development, advocacy,and policy development.Working with the commercial sector to develop agri-business involvingmany smallholders has proven to be successful. One needs to keep inmind that the business objectives of the commercial actors may not bethe same as the objectives of development cooperation, but with gooddesign, dialogue, and pragmatic implementation, they can work welltogether.Much of what was accomplished by EPOPA could also be accomplished byother programmes, also without the organic component. However, theorganic markets do provide special incentives. The organic productionsystem is well-adapted to African smallholders and is sustainable.Apart from the effects on income, organic farming also produces publicgoods and ecosystems services such as carbon sequestrationand biodiversity. In future development programmes such services suchpublic goods should be part of the package. The EPOPA programme, orprogrammes with a similar market-led approach, can be recommended formany other African countries. The market is there and the farmers arethere.

Hydropower in Uttarakhand: Is `Development' the Real Objective?

2008-10-28T16:32:00.000+05:30

This superb Article by Sri Dunu roy, a man who as the EPWtruly says is known for his outstanding work in rural development and inspreading environmental awareness.The facts that he has stated including the ones regarding all the dam sitesfalling within Seismic Zone IV bordering Zone V, or in Zone V near centralthrusts or regarding having ignored or being silent on so many issues likeenvironmental assessment, damage to flora and fauna etc are in themselves ofgreat relevance. Similarly, the examples he has quoted from USA, the ultimatelocation for scientists and development managers are equally revealing andstartling.The alternatives he has suggested have come from his long experience in thesefields and would prove highly beneficial for our country if they are properlyadopted.
The entire article can be downloaded from: http://www.epw.in/uploads/articles/12742.pdf

Mobile poverty research: Substitutions for mobile phone services

2008-10-28T16:23:00.000+05:30

Does owning a mobile phone drive people further into poverty, or is it advancing the livelihoods of the poor? A study conducted by Kathleen Diga in a rural district of Uganda found that owning a mobile phone did both, depending on how it was used.
The research looked broadly at technology spending patterns, specifically mobile phone use in households and what people were giving up to get mobile phones. This ethnographic study in rural Uganda focused on women. The study found that the women got income either from husbands – about $1 a day, or from small business. In 2007, when the study was conducted, 3 minutes off-peak talk time on the same network cost about 40c – which equated to about 40% of the daily household budget.
Given this substantial comparative cost of communication, the question was hence what were they giving up in order to use mobiles? Giving up travel, for instance was seen as a benefit given the costs of transport. Other households were giving up store-bought food – sugar, flour, oil, etc. In this case, those who had gardens could substitute with home produce while those without gardens actually gave up food.
Women were still disempowered in terms of access to the mobile phone because in most instances the male head of the household controlled it. An interesting question not covered in this study is the phone as a status symbol, because it would appear that even when possessing one was seen as beneficial, the costs of operating were eating into the meager household income. Hence it would seem that the benefits might be overstated.
It emerges that whereas there are organized groups that are moving ahead in terms of innovative and cost-effective phone usage, at the level of individual usage, where the phone is already in the hands of an individual, there is little concern with education/ information outreach and training to reduce costs and increase efficiency and benefits. This need for outreach must be the onus of service providers, NGOs, or governments through regulation and licensing procedures.
Consumer protection organizations that should be taking up this fight are frequently weak and ineffectual. The mobile phone, like any form of technology needs to be used appropriately, and its users empowered, for it to yield any positive change.

Increasing World Food Prices: south Asia at Risk

2008-10-28T12:09:00.002+05:30

Expanding existing social assistance programs that directly targets poor households is necessary to protect South Asia’s poor in the face of a dramatic increase in global food prices, a World Bank South Asia expert said today.Shanta Devarajan, World Bank Chief Economist for South Asia, said many countries in the region have cash-transfer programs and schemes that provide grains at lower costs directly to the poor. He advised the governments “to enlarge the safety nets by increasing the amount of cash- transfers and the number of people receiving low cost grains while still passing on the price increase to other domestic consumers who can better afford it.”World food prices have been increasing rapidly since 2006, and the rate of increase during 2007 had been much higher than average. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), overall food prices have increased by 75 percent in dollar terms since 2000. “Most countries in South Asia are net importers of food and have suffered severe terms of trade shocks of 1 percent of GDP,” said Devarajan. The foreign exchange earnings and international purchasing power for these countries have also decreased.Devarajan believes that food prices are likely to continue to increase in the near future. He attributed this phenomenon to raising standards of living in countries like China and India, increased use of food crops for bio-fuels and animal feeds, and increased oil and fertilizer prices.In South Asia, which has the largest concentration of poor people in the world, the increase in food prices is particularly damaging since food accounts for a substantial share of poor people’s income. South Asian countries, however, have very few options available to deal with the challenge. Devarajan advised that governments have to be careful that such measures do not end up hurting those they want to help.

Shantayanan Devarajan, World Bank Chief Economist for South Asia talks about the impact of high food prices on South Asian.
Options for South Asian Governments
Price Controls:
In the past, South Asian governments have resorted to imposing price controls which actually created food shortages that ultimately hurt the poor. “Imposing price controls benefits the middle-class families and the non-poor,” said Devarajan. If food prices are controlled, it makes farmers less likely to produce crops to meet the increasing demand. This will have an even more adverse impact on food prices.
Subsidies:
Devarajan also recommended against untargeted subsidies, which are mostly counter-productive as they put bigger stress on the budget because governments have to pay for the support. Borrowing from the central bank is one way of financing the subsidies, but this lead to higher inflation.Devarajan said targeted subsidies are a better option. They have been used in South Asia to provide relief for poor families in the past, and, by definition, they are not universal and exclude the better-off who can afford to pay market price. As an example, he cited Bangladesh where mostly poor people consume low-cost coarse grain. The government was able to provide relief following the recent floods and cyclones by targeting poor people with this type of grain.By using targeted subsidies, governments will be able to protect poor families without distorting the relative prices of food products, while reducing the overall cost to the budget.
Long-term Solution:
Even with targeted subsidies, many of the programs will be seen as permanent if food prices continue to rise. Targeted or untargeted, eventually these programs will be a drain on the treasury. Therefore, such schemes have to be time bound, and governments have to develop a long-term strategy to address food price increases.One of the best ways to reduce food prices is to increase agricultural productivity. The World Development Report 2008, entitled "Agriculture for Development," has called for a revival of agriculture in South Asia.
Suggestions for South Asia
Bangladesh:
Most affected by price increase:Bangladesh, which imports a substantial portion of major grains consumed by its people, has been particularly badly affected by the continued increase in world food prices. Natural disasters in the past year – two major floods in July and August 2007 and a cyclone in November 2007 - destroyed about 2 million metric tons of rice crops.Bangladesh is currently importing rice from its immediate neighbors, India and Myanmar, to meet the shortage. Devarajan pointed out that this has already created a problem because, several times in past few months, India has imposed ban on rice exports or has increased the minimum export price, and each time, the price of rice in Dhaka spiked. (Read Beggar thy neighbor?)However, Devarajan is confident that Bangladesh “has the potential to cushion the blow on its poor. The country has very well run social assistance programs that have worked well during the floods and cyclone of 2007. At the same time, Bangladesh should try to avoid measures such as price controls or untargeted subsidies even if they are politically popular,” cautioned Devarajan.
Pakistan:
New Government:Unlike Bangladesh, Pakistan does not have a widespread social assistance program that targets the poorest of the poor. In addition, most Pakistani families consume the same kind of wheat, making it difficult to target poor people. Any subsidy on wheat will thus be an untargeted subsidy. Since a newly elected government has just come into power, it is imperative that it withstands pressure to act in ways that may not be efficient in addressing the needs of poor.During a recent visit to Pakistan, Praful Patel, World Bank Vice President for South Asia, said that high international prices for petroleum and food commodities are creating challenges for the Pakistan’s economy. Patel discussed with Pakistani leaders ways to protect the poor as domestic prices are adjusted. Patel offered World Bank technical assistance to build upon international best practice in responding to the current situation.“Any adjustment will be painful,” said Patel. “But there must be an appropriate safety net for the poor. The incoming government has requested our support, and we will help ensure there are smart subsidies to the poorest. These must be well targeted and efficient programs, including cash transfers, where leakage is minimized. We know this can be done because we saw the excellent response from the government after the earthquake where affected families were provided relief and cash transfers quickly and effectively.” (Read More)
India:
Phase out Minimum Support Price (MSP):The Indian government buys wheat from farmers at a Minimum Support Price (MSP), which is highly distortionary and contributes to high costs for its budget. Devarajan suggests that the government should use this opportunity to do away with this policy, since the world food prices are about the same as MSP. “The subsidy has a high leakage to higher-income groups,” he said.
Sri Lanka:
High Inflation:Devarajan said Sri Lanka is also a net importer of food products, and food price inflation is estimated at 34 percent. However, the country is already facing high inflation with an average of 20 percent, independent of food prices. The high inflation is partly due to government borrowing a large amount of money from the central bank.
Nepal:
Scale up:Nepal also depends on food imports from India and other countries to manage its needs. Devarajan said “Nepal needs to expand already existing social assistance programs in rural areas.” However, he pointed out that Nepal has a limited social assistance program to protect the urban poor.
Urban and Rural Poor
While almost all urban poor people are net food consumers, the situation with the rural poor is different. Farmers who are net producers are benefiting from higher food prices. However, farmers with small arable lands and landless laborers are net consumers of food, as they may not produce sufficient amounts for their families’ requirements.

Global Financial Crisis: Effect on South Asia

2008-10-28T12:01:00.002+05:30

October 21, 2008 - Over the last 10 years, South Asia witnessed a rapid and robust growth of more than six percent per annum, which enabled millions of people to escape poverty. In 2006, the region recorded a growth rate of nine percent – the highest in the last 25 years.However, in the last five years, price increases of global commodities, especially those of oil, metal, and food, took a toll on South Asia. Budget deficits widened and trade balances worsened. With this, the growth softened and inflation reached double digits. Before the region could recover from the adverse impact of high commodity prices, the global financial crisis has come knocking. The cascading effects of these crises will present daunting policy challenges to South Asia.The adverse impact has the potential to reverse elements of the impressive development gains that South Asia has achieved over the past decade and impede its progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).“The slowdown in the global economy will adversely impact South Asian exports and thus foreign earnings,” said Sadiq Ahmed, World Bank Acting Chief Economist for the South Asia region. “Coupled with lower foreign capital flows and domestic investment, this will significantly reduce growth for South Asia.” (Download Analysis - pdf)

Read analysis about the global financial crisis and its impact on South Asia

Capital and capitalists nannied by the states: An Interview with Amiya Kumar Bagchi

2008-10-20T18:43:00.002+05:30

Saturday, 18 October 2008
"Capital and capitalists will continue to be nannied by the states they control, unless the crisis intensifies the struggles of workers and peasants to change this horrendously unjust and murderous social and political order. Nor will borrowers of recapitalized banks or the insured of the US company AIG benefit from lower interest rates, better access to credit or insurance or less discriminatory insurance rates. The new managers will be busy guarding the capital of their respective managed entities. Unless the rulers are made to see that money market instruments are not the proper vehicles to deliver affordable credit or insurance to the poor and are forced to carry out the structural changes needed to embody that perspective in practice, the old order will continue when the recession subsides."
Radical Notes: Can you explain the nature of the current crisis and how it developed?
Amiya Kumar Bagchi (AKB): A full explanation of the current crisis will be a book-length study. The immediate causes of the crisis can be put as follows: (a) unbridled financial liberalization, the most significant components of which have been the further elaboration of derivatives, including securitized products, increasing the non-transparency of the financial market, (b) the effective demolition of the distinction between deposit banks specializing in loans and investment banks, (c) conversion of the dollar into virtually the sole source of global liquidity, even while keeping a major fraction of the world’s economies in a condition of endemic deficiency of effective demand and (d) the rapid emergence of housing and related markets as sectors of the most intense speculative activity.
Radical Notes: As an economic historian, do you find any uniqueness in the present crisis in comparison to the past ones?
AKB: Capitalism has been racked by speculative crises, almost from the moment of its birth. One of the earliest of such crises was the Tulip Mania in the Netherlands in the 1630s. The second speculative crisis in order of occurrence was the crisis of 1720-21 centring around the so-called Mississippi project in France and the South Sea Company in England: this crisis threatened to engulf much of Western Europe at the time. If we take England only, there were severe banking crises in almost every decade from the 1820s , with the Baring Crisis of 1890-91, characterizing the last decade. In that crisis, the inability of Baring Bros to meet its obligations arising out of its over-exposure to loans to the Argentine government threatened to involve the whole British financial system. That is arguably the first time that the Bank of England acted as the lender of last resort. (Baring Bros collapsed in 1995, as a result of Nick Leeson, its bureau chief in Singapore, losing his bet on movements of Nekkei and the firm’s capital of £800 million disappeared). Then you have the biggest financial crisis of the twentieth century, namely, the Great Depression of the 1930s, which really ended with the onset of World War II that saw the stepping up of military and other public expenditure to unprecedented heights. But as any student of history knows, you never step into the same stream twice. Capitalism in particular has been like a super-chameleon, transforming not only its colour but also its apparent structural relations every few decades. The changes preceding the current crisis are no exception. The uniqueness of the crisis can probably be described as a situation in which governments, so-called specialists in finance not only ignored the totally non-transparent manner in which banks, investment brokers and non-bank financial institutions carried on their business, but positively cheered them in the belief that this was the way to create wealth. One of the most ironic symbols of this atmosphere is the compilation and celebration of the growth of wealth of the 'High Net Value Individuals' (HNVIs) by Merrill Lynch, a firm that had to merge with Bank of America in order to stave off bankruptcy.
Radical Notes: Can we understand the present crisis as a crisis of imperialism and the US hegemony?
AKB: Yes, we can. But we must remember that other G7 countries are also implicated in the US hegemony, and even China’s current pattern of growth is symbiotically related to US hegemony. Whether the crisis will lead to a decline in the murderousness of the US military operations remains an open question. As I have argued earlier, capital wants to win in competition, if necessary in the last instance by using armed conflict. The prospect of a USA threatened with the loss of hegemony using its fearsome arsenal of weapons of mass destruction is mind-numbing.
Radical Notes: How do you assess the impact of the crisis on the developing countries?
AKB: In many developing countries, there are no real stock markets and even if there are, their operations do not have much of an impact on firms which are often too small to be able to raise money in the stock market. In many of them, earlier depredations of imperialism, its domestic collaborators and its agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank have led to the exclusion of most economic agents from formal credit markets. The so-called success of micro-credit agencies in Bangladesh, for example, was built not only on loans extended by foreign lenders but also on the destruction of public sector banking by local businessmen defaulting on their loans. Organizations blessed by the World Bank and foreign donors fished in such turbid waters. The direct effect of the present crisis on such countries may not be great. But they will suffer through the further decline in the demand for their output in foreign and domestic markets because of the global recession. The countries, which have depended greatly on foreign capital for stimulation of their economies such as India, will also suffer through minor or major currency crises and the downsizing of the transactional enterprises operating in those countries and badly affected by the crisis. In the immediate future, the most distressing effect for the common people will continue to be the loss of employment in construction, services and the manufacturing sector and the high cost of food grains, induced by underinvestment in agriculture in developing countries, speculation in commodities by the big finance houses and others and the diversion of cropland to the highly subsidized biofuel in developed market economies, especially the USA.
Radical Notes: A recent report says that India and China - which are considered by many as the bulwark of capitalist growth in the 21st century - have witnessed the steepest market declines between December 2007 and September 2008. They "have lost almost 51% of market capitalization, or m-cap, and this figure could be much higher if the declines of the last fortnight are taken into account." As latest reports indicate, industries in India, especially the aviation industry, have already started shifting the brunt of the crisis on labour, through various means. Do you think these developments are indications toward a full-fledged crisis around the corner? AKB: As far as China is concerned, the slide in stock prices will not have a major effect on the economy, because stocks traded in the Shanghai market provide finance only to a small fraction of firms in the Chinese economy. But the effect on India is obvious not only from the retrenchments already announced by aviation companies and IT firms but also by the continued outflow of FII funds from India and consequent decline in the value of the Indian rupee. The Indian manufacturing sector was already showing a downward trend in fiscal 2007-08, and that trend has strengthened in recent weeks as shown by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). It is disingenuous of the Finance Minister to call the IIP "not very reliable" when his government has done so much to massage the official statistics so as to produce a favourable picture of its performance in the economic field.
Radical Notes: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) too is taking measures to ensure liquidity and boost confidence. As a historian of India's banking sector, how do you assess India's financial-structural ability to withstand such crisis at this juncture? How much do you think the neo-liberal policies that subsequent governments have pursued eroded this ability?
AKB: Fortunately, despite all the attempts of successive governments at the Centre since 1991 to force the pace of 'economic reforms', the worst of their designs could not be carried through. These include full capital account convertibility, complete privatisation of the banking and insurance sectors, and total abolition of the distinction between banks and non-banking finance companies. Every time either major international crises or electoral compulsions have stayed their hand. In 1997 and this time around, financial crisis in Asia and the global financial crisis have prevented the enforcement of capital account convertibility. The strength of Indian public sector banks compared with their private counterparts is there for all to see. The worst development under the neo-liberal regime is the naked play of money and communalism in determining the positions all major centrist or right-wing parties have adopted. Another major casualty has been the fiscal stance of the state. It will take quite an effort to get the rich to pay their taxes and to stop the indulgence the state has displayed towards punters and hot money merchants in the financial sector. The quality of Indian democracy has been further sullied under the neo-liberal regime. Hence the ability of the regime to handle the resolution of the crisis in national interest has been badly impaired.
Radical Notes: Various commentators have suggested that the bailing out strategies of different governments throughout the world has ultimately brought the state back in. What is the merit of such conclusion? Can we see this return of the state as just a moment, for which Milton Friedman once said the role of government is "to do something that market cannot do for itself"?
AKB: Yes, the state has been brought in but only to save the illegitimate earnings of the crony capitalists. Will Mr Richard Fuld, CEO of Lehman Bros, be made to disgorge the nearly $500 million he earned from his stock options and bonuses? In the financial year 2007-08 alone, according to Forbes.com, Fuld earned $71.50 million and in the preceding 5 years he had earned $354 million. When Lehman applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Fuld took $22 million from the firm as retirement benefit. What applies to the top managers of Lehman also applies to those of Wachovia and Merrill Lynch, to UBS of Switzerland which is being recapitalized by the Swiss government or Northern Rock, the hosing mortgage bank, which has been bailed out by the Bank of England. In 2004, I published an article with the self-explanatory title, "Nanny state for capital and Social Darwinism for Labour" (Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 47(1), January-March). Capital and capitalists will continue to be nannied by the states they control, unless the crisis intensifies the struggles of workers and peasants to change this horrendously unjust and murderous social and political order. Nor will borrowers of recapitalized banks or the insured of the US company AIG benefit from lower interest rates, better access to credit or insurance or less discriminatory insurance rates. The new managers will be busy guarding the capital of their respective managed entities. Unless the rulers are made to see that money market instruments are not the proper vehicles to deliver affordable credit or insurance to the poor and are forced to carry out the structural changes needed to embody that perspective in practice, the old order will continue when the recession subsides.

Amiya Kumar Bagchi is India's foremost political economist and economic historian. He is the Director of the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata. He was a member of the State Planning Board until 2005, Government of West Bengal and was recently Chairman of a committee appointed by the Government of West Bengal to report on the finances of the government during the Tenth Five Year Plan period. He acted as the official historian of The State Bank of India until 1997. His recent works include (co-edited with Gary A.Dymski) Capture and Exclude: Developing Economies and the Poor in Global Finance, Tulika, New Delhi, 2007, The Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, USA, 2005, The Developmental State in History and in the Twentieth Century, Regency Publications, New Delhi, 2004, and Capital and Labour Re-defined: India and the Third World, Tulika, New Delhi and Anthem Press, London, 2002.

Millions face starvation in Horn of Africa

2008-10-20T13:37:00.001+05:30

Food crisis in Africa

Don’t Ignore Poverty Data

2008-10-17T12:12:00.000+05:30

Latest figures show an urgent need for inclusive growth
Vinod Thomas
Robust economic growth in the first few years of the 21st century has helped reduce poverty worldwide. But new numbers show that the actual extent of deprivation in India and elsewhere is far greater than previously thought. This insight does not question the role of growth in improving livelihoods, but it spotlights the need for much greater inclusiveness in the growth process in the face of the scale of poverty. Sustained growth remains a high priority. But it is not just how fast a country grows; crucially, it is also how it grows. Widening gaps between the rich and the poor dampen the impact of growth on poverty. Countries such as Brazil or Mexico have historically had a much higher income inequality than India or Indonesia. But disparities have been rising in recent years in the large Asian countries, while they have been falling in major Latin American nations. The new poverty estimates from the World Bank incorporate the finding that living costs are actually higher than estimated before, reflected in a global poverty line of $1.25 a day. These calculations suggest that as of 2005 there were 1.4 billion people worldwide living in extreme poverty. One-third of them would be in India, signifying the largest number of poor compared to other countries — and even relative to the country’s own past by these measures. Rapid growth has helped reduce India’s percentage of people in poverty, though far slower than in East Asia. And when coupled with high population growth, the numbers of the poor, which is what matters, show an increase. What’s striking is how close to the poverty line tens of millions live in India, making for a large change in the poverty numbers from a small shift in the chosen threshold. Even modest shocks can push millions below the poverty line. How well do these poverty measures mirror deprivation and its changes? For one thing, they do not adequately reflect access to schooling, health care, water and sanitation, or other public services that mark people’s well-being. Nor do they capture crime and violence or environmental destruction, which are especially serious in low-income localities. Across countries, some of these attributes — especially those affecting the underprivileged — have improved in recent years, but others have taken a turn for the worse. But regardless of the precise numbers, the urgency is clear in India for achieving more inclusive growth. Experience across countries tells us that it is important to get at inequalities, but in ways that do not derail growth. In this respect, generating opportunities and jobs for the poorer segments of the population would seem to be the best way forward. Policy leaders and policy documents in India recognise the directions needed: the key would be to spur actions and achieve results. High on the agenda for greater inclusiveness would be actions to address disparities in education that contribute to large earning differentials. Compared to Korea or Russia, education inequalities are large in India or Indonesia. What matters, of course, are not only greater access to schooling, but also the relevance and quality of the education — and learning outcomes that determine its usefulness in the workplace and contribution to growth. Narrowing earning gaps also calls for efforts to address the growing skill differentials, worker mobility and the functioning of labour markets. A second issue concerns rural-urban and regional differences in incomes. Expansion of agricultural productivity, complemented by the construction of all-weather rural roads and rural electrification, would have important impacts on rural poverty. Systematic differences in income levels across states and sub-regions also merit attention. In China and India, the poorer states or provinces have, in general, grown slower than the richer ones, while it has been the other way around in some other middle- and high-income countries. A third policy area for inclusion involves improved ways to provide income support to the poor. Many countries have relied on the provision of subsidies for consumer items, but the programmes have seldom been well targeted or effective.On the other hand, conditional cash transfer programmes have looked promising. Mexico and Brazil provide cash support to poor families conditional on children attending school and going to clinics for check-ups. These approaches have shown encouraging results in reducing poverty today, and improving education and health that help sustain future growth. And then there is the new danger that is affecting all: climate change and natural disasters wreaking havoc in the lives of people, especially the poor who are most likely to be in harm’s way. The Indian Ocean tsunami left more than 10,000 people dead and about 5,600 missing in India alone. The fury of the Kosi river affected 2.5 million people in 1,600 villages in Bihar, and 70,000 people in the immediate shock in Nepal. If combating damages to the environment was once considered a diversion from growth, its neglect now represents a central threat to growth. The poverty data reminds us that it is not enough to grow, it is also vital that increasing numbers of people benefit from the growth. India can generate high growth with a far greater impact on poverty through policy actions. As it turns out, inclusive growth is not only key to social progress, it is indispensable to sustaining growth itself.
The writer is director-general, Independent Evaluation Group, World Bank. Views expressed are personal.

Social Entrepreneur: Harish Hande (Part 1)

2008-10-16T08:53:00.000+05:30

Dr. Harish Hande is the co-founder of Selco, a rural sustainable energy company which has over 80,000 installations and 25 retail sales and service centers all over Karnataka, a state in Southern India. Among it’s many accomplishments, Selco has created India’s first rural solar financing program using regional banks. I recently talked with Harish about the development of Selco and his journey as a remarkably committed social entrepreneur.
SM: Tell us bout your childhood, where you grew up and what kind of education you had. This will help us put the interview in context. HH: I grew up in a steel town in Orissa, a state on the East Cost of India. I did all of my schooling up to 12th grade there, and then I went to the IIT for undergraduate work in Energy Engineering. I did my Master’s and PhD at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, also in Energy Engineering.
SM: All of your educational background is in Energy Engineering? HH: Yes. I concentrated on one discipline and have all of my training there.
SM: What did you do after you finished your Masters, did you work anywhere? HH: No, I have not worked anywhere else. Selco Is my first job, and hopefully it is my last.
SM: Did you just decide to pick up the pieces, leave Massachusetts and go to India to start Selco? HH: It did not happen exactly like that. My PhD revolved around rural electrification, and during my fieldwork I looked at Sri Lanka and India. However, while I was doing my Master’s I also focused on rural electrification, I was looking at the Dominican Republic. I had gone there for a very brief visit.
The person installing solar panels there later on became my friend. It was at that moment that I realized solar power was such a viable energy solution. When I came back to the US, and I prepared for my field work in Sri Lanka and India, the questions about what was a reliable solution for rural electrification which was also feasible, emerged. There were various solutions which seemed could be applied, but while I was doing the actual solution design work, I came upon the solution that became Selco. I also met my cofounder then.
SM: What year was this? HH: Sometime between 1992 and 1993.
SM: Can we then say that you started Selco in 1993? HH: As a concept, that is correct. As a formal company we started it in 1995.
For more click on the title

INTERVIEW-UN prepares to feed more as financial crisis bites

2008-10-16T08:50:00.000+05:30

By Megan Rowling
DUBLIN, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The U.N. food agency expects to feed around a third more hungry people next year, as the global financial crisis adds to the pressure of high food prices on poor nations, a top official said on Wednesday.
Sheila Sisulu, deputy executive director at the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), said an increase of around 30 million in the number the agency helps would offset a decline in food and fuel costs.
WFP is providing aid to some 90 million people in 2008, and plans to widen assistance to the newly poor in urban areas who have been hit hard by food inflation in the past two years.
"If those people now lose their jobs as a result of the financial crisis, then we will see the effect again possibly in insecurity in some countries -- riots and so forth," Sisulu told Reuters ahead of a conference on hunger organised by aid agency Concern Worldwide.
"We will see the effect of the financial crisis on the village road."
People who have survived on money sent by relatives working overseas are also likely to need help as tough economic times translate into fewer jobs and lower remittances, Sisulu said.
As a result, the agency expects to request the same level of funding from donors in 2009, she said. Earlier this year, soaring food and energy prices forced WFP to double its budget to close to $6 billion.
International food prices have since declined, partly due to the slowing world economy. They fell to a nine-month low in September but were still 51 percent higher than two years ago, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Sisulu said the impact of the global food crisis would deepen just when it was slipping down the agenda.
"I think it will get worse -- less as a direct correlation of the financial crisis but more because people are getting complacent," she said. "Just because it's off the headlines, people think it's gone."
But in the coming months, countries where crops have failed, such as Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, will need increased food aid.
Last week, WFP said the number of Zimbabweans facing severe food shortages would rise from more than 2 million to 5 million early next year, before the next harvest.
The agency appealed for $140 million to provide food rations there over the next six months. It warned that without fresh contributions, it would run out of stocks in January, just when the need was greatest.
Sisulu said she hoped donors would understand the urgency of the situation at a time when global financial turmoil could start to have a domino effect in poor countries.
"If you take southern Africa, we are entering the lean season. Anybody who loses their job now loses the planting time, and that will add pressure to those numbers like in Zimbabwe," she said. (Editing by Alison Williams)

Global Food Crisis: Meet Three Families Fighting for Survival

2008-10-16T08:42:00.000+05:30

by Scott Cotter
While many of us are feeling the squeeze of higher prices, sponsored families supported by Children International now find themselves facing a real crisis.
Many already teeter between calamity and survival. To stay afloat, they often master the fine art of eking out an income in jobless communities through persistence, hard work and ingenuity. They've summoned the courage to keep going, and to work harder for just pennies a day.
Sponsorship helps by covering the cost of many basic necessities so families can focus their resources where they're needed most. But with every cent being stretched to the limit, the food crisis has pushed many over the line. Some remove children from school so they can work and provide additional income. They may forego medicine or health care for the sick, resort to collecting water from contaminated (and free) sources, or simply go hungry.
As this crisis unfolds, we're taking a closer look at those most affected - the poorest of the poor - and examining how rising prices are taking a toll.
The Bisa Family: Tabaco, Philippines
Ailene feels all alone.
Just a few months ago, lightning struck and killed her husband, Ronnie, as he fished to put food on the table and earn a living. In his absence, Ailene is raising three daughters - Ronilyn, Maria and Melody, ages 13, 8 and 4 - all by herself.
"We're still not used to my husband being gone," she utters. "My youngest keeps asking when he'll come back. I still can't believe how we're able to survive."
Scared - and terribly lonely - she has turned to the only things she knows for the survival of her family...laundry and weaving. The result of her hard work and mountains of worry is less than $5 a week. It's enough to buy a little fish, some rice and bread and a few vegetables; there's never anything left over for other necessities.
"We still haven't reached the point where my daughters have nothing to eat at all," she offers, "but we have experienced missing some meals. It doesn't matter if I don't eat as long as my daughters don't go hungry."
Ailene's two youngest, Marie and Melody, are sponsored and have recently been diagnosed with malnutrition. They're enrolled in Children International's feeding program in Tabaco, and Ailene says the school supplies and tuition, medical care and clothing helps alleviate some of the financial strain. Still, she adds, the future seems uncertain at best. "In the coming weeks, I'm not sure what will happen."
The Chisala Family: Lusaka, Zambia
The winds whip up a small dust cloud that tumbles across the patch of bare earth in front of the Chisala home before carrying it down the road and off toward other block dwellings scattered here and there.
It's lunchtime, yet in the compounds it is eerily quiet. Not a single person can be seen outside tending to a charcoal cook stove preparing something for lunch. There is no capenta (staple fish), there is no mealie meal (corn meal), not even a few withered vegetables to prepare.
Paul Chisala stands looking at the lifeless road and squints against the searing midday sun. Quietly, he laments the situation. "I can no longer buy a 25 kg bag of mealie meal because I can no longer afford it."
The Chisala family isn't alone. While rising food prices - as much as 75 percent - have devastated families around the globe, sub-Saharan Africa may be ground zero for this crisis.
Families already in trouble because of overwhelming unemployment, rampant disease and an undervalued currency survive on next to nothing. The average income in the communities Children International serves is just $20 a month.
The outcome is easy to see. Paul says his daughter, Kareen, 10, often goes to school hungry because they have nothing to feed her. Or, she refuses to go because her hunger leaves her feeling weak and unable to study.
"I have tried to look for a job, but there are no jobs," Paul reveals. "All I manage to get are part-time jobs. There are times when I go for two months without any work. I end up begging for food from my brother, who is a soldier."
Children International is attempting to alleviate the problems by supporting community schools where children can get breakfast before starting the day. This not only helps prevent more malnutrition and helps children concentrate, it gives families more incentive to make sure their children - children like Kareen -go to class.
The Lozot Family: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Olivia Lozot is known as "The Garbage Lady," an unflattering nickname she shrugs off without a thought.
Her family, she and her four children, eat and earn a living from what others throw away. "I have always worked," explains Olivia. "But now that I have small children, I can't get a job."
The family lives in one of Guatemala City's many slums, amidst a backdrop of gang warfare, drugs and depression. They have no electricity, running water or everyday comforts beyond two small beds. For a mother of four who can't read or write, there are few opportunities.
That's why Olivia makes her own. And her children, Ana, 15, Donal, 11, Marcos, 3, and Jesus, 1, are often there by her side. They look for nylons, glass bottles and aluminum cans ... anything they can sell.
"When we go to the dumpster," says Olivia, "I carry extra clothes because the smell of garbage gets in their clothes."
Although Olivia can't read or write, she wants her children to attend school. Donal attends school for children who work, going in the morning before he joins his mother and siblings in the garbage around noon. Ana, however, refuses to go, choosing instead to dig in the trash all day and care for her younger siblings.
"Sometimes, I feel sad and desperate," confesses Olivia. "I tell the children when there is food they can eat but when there isn't they must tolerate it."
Still, despite the difficulties, Olivia wants her children to someday realize a better life ... something that has always eluded her.
Children International's sponsorship program helps by reducing her expenses for school supplies, clothing, health and dental care and other basic needs. But as prices for basic necessities go up - especially for food - the money she could use to help them improve their future also remains elusive.
Making Do
As prices for food and other staples continue to send shockwaves throughout the global economy, families most affected - those earning just a few dollars a day - will have to learn how to cope. Many will work even harder than they do now. While others will simply be forced to do without.
Sponsorship is one answer, helping reduce the expenses families face for many of their most basic necessities. And your additional support can help assist families in critical need. Please call now or visit this link to make a donation to help ease the struggle families face during this food crisis.
About Children International:
Children International is a nonprofit, humanitarian organization that works to ease the burdens of poverty on children through one-to-one child sponsorship. Our programs and services provide health, educational, material and emotional assistance to impoverished children and families in 11 countries around the world.

Bailout, fallout

2008-10-16T08:32:00.000+05:30

From Business world Online:
Hold the cheering. The modest upturns — after major crashes — now being reported in global stock markets in response (possibly) to massive govern- ment bailout plans in the US, Germany, the UK, and France do not indicate that the present crisis is over. The sad fact is that the "rescue" packages do not resolve problematic conditions in the US and the networked rest of the world. These conditions still mean a deep US recession and a global economic slowdown that will affect everyone.
To realize why, one needs only to revisit how the US Federal Reserve Board’s easy money policy over the past several years brought the world to the mess it now finds itself. It began with easy credit causing American consumers to go on a home-buying binge, developers to embark on a construction rampage, aggressive Wall Street firms to "securitize" pools of even "subprime" home mortgages and peddle these as low-risk securities, and hitherto conservative savings and commercial banks to ignore their traditional credit standards and take on debt instruments whose risk-return character they did not fully appreciate. It continued with American spending leading to huge US trade deficits, with financial institutions in countries running huge trade surpluses with the US needing places to invest their dollars and parking these in high-yielding subprime mortgage notes insured via credit default swaps, with increased demand for American debt paper fueling an even greater production of the same, and with a steep inflationary spiral in the US. It ended with the housing bubble finally bursting, with real estate prices plunging, with homeowners failing or unwilling to make good on their mortgage payments on reduced-value houses, with insurance companies (like AIG) unable to make good on all their default guarantees, and with a financial tsunami raging through markets that had the sophistication (or was it naiveté?) to embrace exotic credit derivatives.
In effect, over the past several years, the rest of the world funded America’s consumer spending boom by lending America money. This is why banks and investment funds outside America are holding vast amounts of American debt paper and why they are now reeling from seeing these assets turn "toxic" and lose much of their value. The bailout plans supposedly address this problem.
The main elements of those rescue plans involve using public money to take toxic assets off the hands (and books) of private institutions and to inject additional capital to shore up the diminished equity of badly hit banks. What the bailout aims to do, in essence, is hold up prices of overvalued American securities by effectively introducing an artificial price floor. As I argued in my column three weeks ago ("Failure of nerve?") when the American plan was still being discussed in the US Congress, this will not work as expected. Astute investors would see through this and, consequently, would consider a government "rescue" as merely a short-term window for dumping bad assets before the supports collapse and prices drop even further.
In that September 25 column, I further argued that a US government rescue of Wall Street "fat cats" was the wrong thing to do, not only from a moral standpoint but also from a practical problem-solving standpoint. I said that spending an enormous amount of public money to take bad assets off the balance sheets of private financial institutions would simply hold back the equilibrating forces of the market from quickly pushing prices of these securities down to their intrinsic values. I thought that this would therefore only delay the restoration of some measure of certainty — the certainty that prevailing prices are reflecting what other investors actually think certain pieces of paper are worth — to an already frightened market and raise uncertainty to the level that leads to a selling frenzy. As it turns out, this is what has been happening. What compounds the problem is that governments of other countries whose own financial markets have been affected by the American tsunami have decided to throw substantial amounts of their own taxpayers’ money into bailing out private institutions of their own.
In fairness to the architects of these bailouts, their objective seemed merely to provide some temporary respite to allow the prices of overvalued American securities to ultimately stabilize in a less frenzied fashion and provide the institutions holding them the time to somehow make the capital adjustments that will cover the holes in their balance sheets created by the sudden dissipation of significant asset values. Much of the pressure, however, for extensive government action to "stabilize" markets appears to come from politically important financial players, both in the US and other countries, who just want the chance to get out before the market hits bottom and want as much of their losses as possible to be absorbed by taxpayers. No one can reasonably believe the rhetoric of these big moneymen that their concern is about the "system" surviving. Their only concern (I believe) is making sure that they themselves survive this sudden downturn that has caught them "long" on overpriced assets. What quick passage by developed-country governments — over public protests — of these rescue packages demonstrates is that, like moneymen everywhere, fat cats have greater clout with their government than the ordinary taxpayer.
In any event, much as bailouts of fat cats grates against all notions of fair play, this might be tolerable to the taxpayers who will pay for these bailouts if the expenditure of their money will actually fix what’s wrong with the financial system, both in America and in the networked rest of the world. The problem is that these bailouts only delay a real resolution. Markets don’t really turn back up until they have hit true bottoms.
I don’t believe that those bailouts will restore to investors the hoped-for level of confidence in American paper or in American institutions. I think that the confidence that has hitherto caused the rest of the world to channel its collective savings into America — thereby financing for years America’s expanding debt and fueling its housing boom — has already been irreparably damaged, at least for now. This is already evident. Investors all over the world are getting rid of American paper as quickly as they can and seeking refuge in commodities and other assets with more tangible values. Those with large holdings of American dollars must be scrambling for ways to convert these into assets denominated in other currencies. By now, everyone must have concluded that — given America’s persistent and increasing current account deficits — the American dollar must be seen as even weaker than it has been taken to be, and weakening. The US Fed will probably raise interest rates to slow down the momentum to sell dollars but that will also dampen economic activities in the US, aggravating its recession.
Necessarily, the end of easy credit and a drop in American consumption means that firms in countries now supplying the US with goods and services are going to experience serious contractions in demand. Since the US is the world’s biggest importer and consumer, a US recession means significant slowdowns in countries with export-driven economies. Moreover, given the protracted boom period in the US and the price heights reached in its inflationary spiral, this recession is likely to be long and deep.
The fallout will definitely affect us. Not as much as it will affect other countries, though, because we do not have large accumulations of American paper and our economy is not as dependent on our exports to America as others (the US accounts for only about 15 percent of our exports). Also, Filipinos have not been — fortunately, in an ironic sort of way — in any kind of consumer spending bubble, so there is nothing that can burst. Still, we need to brace ourselves. Even the wake of a tsunami can sweep flimsily built structures away.

Don't Blame Capitalism

2008-10-16T08:24:00.000+05:30

From Washington Post
By Peter SchiffThursday, October 16, 2008;
Amid the chaos of recent days, as the federal government has taken gargantuan steps to stabilize the financial markets, realigning the U.S. economic system in the process, comes a nearly universal consensus: This crisis resulted from government reluctance to regulate the unbridled greed of Wall Street. Many economists and market participants who were formerly averse to government interference agree that a more robust regulatory framework must be constructed to cage the destructive forces of capitalism.
For the political left, which has long championed the need for such limits, this crisis is the opportunity of a lifetime.
Absent from such conclusions is the central role the government played in creating the crisis. Yes, many Wall Street leaders were irresponsible, and they should pay. But they were playing the distorted hand dealt them by government policies. Our leaders irrationally promoted home-buying, discouraged savings, and recklessly encouraged borrowing and lending, which together undermined our markets.
Just as prices in a free market are set by supply and demand, financial and real estate markets are governed by the opposing tension between greed and fear. Everyone wants to make money, but everyone is also afraid of losing what he has. Although few would ascribe their desire for prosperity to greed, it is simply a rose by another name. Greed is the elemental motivation for the economic risk-taking and hard work that are essential to a vibrant economy But over the past generation, government has removed the necessary counterbalance of fear from the equation. Policies enacted by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which were always government entities in disguise), and others created advantages for home-buying and selling and removed disincentives for lending and borrowing. The result was a credit and real estate bubble that could only grow -- until it could grow no more.
Prominent among these wrongheaded advantages are the mortgage interest tax deduction and the exemption of real estate capital gains from taxable income. These policies create unnatural demand for home purchases and a (tax-free) incentive to speculate in real estate.
Similarly, the FHA, Fannie and Freddie were created to encourage lending by allowing primary lenders to turn their long-term risk over to the government. Absent this implicit guarantee, lenders would probably have been much more conservative in approving borrowers and setting interest terms, and in requiring documentation of incomes and higher down payments. Market forces would have kept out unqualified buyers and prevented home-price appreciation from exceeding the growth in household income.
Interest rates contributed the most to creating the housing boom. After the dot-com crash and the slowdown following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Federal Reserve took extraordinary steps to prevent a shallow recession from deepening. By slashing interest rates to 1 percent and holding them below the rate of inflation for years, the government discouraged savings and practically distributed free money.
Artificially low interest rates invigorated the market for adjustable-rate mortgages and gave birth to the teaser rate, which made overpriced homes appear affordable. Alan Greenspan himself actively encouraged home buyers to avail themselves of these seeming benefits. As monetary policy caused houses to become more expensive, it also temporarily provided buyers with the means to overpay. Cheap money gave rise to subprime mortgages and the resulting securitization wave that made these loans appear safe for investors.
And even today, as market forces deflate the credit bubble, the government is stepping in to re-inflate it. First came the Treasury's $700 billion plan to purchase mortgage assets that no one in the private sector would buy. Now it has recapitalized banks to the tune of $250 billion, guaranteeing loans between banks and fully insuring non-interest-bearing accounts. Policymakers say that absent these steps, banks would not be able to extend loans. But given our already staggering debt burden, perhaps more loans are not the answer. That's what the free market is telling us. But the government cannot abide solutions that ask for consumer sacrifice.
Real credit can be supplied only by savings, so artificial steps to stimulate lending will only produce inflation. By refusing to allow market forces to rein in excess spending, liquidate bad investments, replenish depleted savings, fund capital investment and help workers transition from the service sector to the manufacturing sector, government is resisting the cure while exacerbating the disease.
The United States reached its economic preeminence on the strength of its free markets. So far, the economic disaster exacerbated by government policies is creating opportunities for further government interference, which will lead to bigger catastrophes. Binding the country to a tangle of socialist ideals will seal our fate as a second-rate economic power.
The writer, who was economic adviser for Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign, is president of Euro Pacific Capital. He is the author of "The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets."

Farewell to the Tatas: Costs and benefits of the Tata-Singur Project, a detailed dissection of the deal

2008-10-14T17:51:00.002+05:30

October 3, 2008
By Dipankar Basu, Sanhati. Open for comments
Summary of findings:
Costs: the total cost of the Tata-Singur project incurred by the exchequer, and hence ultimately the tax payers, will be approximately be Rs. 3000 crores on a net present value basis when we add up the costs pertaining to the land subsidy, the tax holidays, the soft loan, the real estate gift and the subsidized electricity using an interest rate of 11%. This is about 58% of the total realized industrial investment in the state of West Bengal in 2007.
Benefits: Maximum cap of 12,000 direct jobs with 10% unskilled employment, minus employment destruction. The other claim about the Singur project generating prospective investment in the future rests on equally shaky foundations. The question really boils down to whether the Tata plant can attract other major investments and lead to an industrial rejuvenation of Bengal. The example of Jamshedpur in neighbouring Jharkhand should be carefully looked at. Tata’s factories in Jamshedpur did nothing for the overall industrialization of the state of Bihar or now Jharkhand. It remained an enclave of industrial activity, without forging strong forward or backward linkages in neighbouring areas.
Tata’s net worth versus what they demand from tax-payers: If we add up the figures for the Tata Group’s overseas acquisitions, we arrive at a rough figure of $14,062 million, which converts to roughly Rs. 56,248 crore (using an exchange rate of Rs 40/$), and this is not even a complete list of Tata’s recent acquisitions. And, what does all this lead to? It inevitably leads us to the conclusion that a corporation which can invest more than Rs. 56,000 crores for acquisition of strategic foreign corporate assets requires the financial support of India’s impoverished taxpayers, to the tune of Rs. 1140 crores in real terms, to set up a small car manufacturing plant in India!
A discussion of TINA is given.
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Introduction
Cost and Benfits
The Agreement
Land “Acquisition” and Use
Total Cost of the Project
Hidden Land Subsidy
Cost of Circumventing the Law
Soft Loans and Tax
Holidays
More Gifts from Santa: Real Estate and Subsidized Electricity
Adding up the Costs
What are the Benefits?
Oh! So Poor Tata
TINA Logic
Conclusion
Agreement between Tata Motors Ltd., Government of West Bengal and WBIDC
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Introduction
Singur stands for many, often contradictory, things. It stands for the model of neoliberal industrialization that the Indian state is trying to push down the throats of it’s citizens at the behest of big capital. It stands for the unprincipled and populist politics of dormant right-wing forces. It stands for the abject surrender of an erstwhile communist party to the dictates of capital, the full flowering of a tendency that surfaced in the Indian political firmament circa 1967. But Singur also stands for the struggle of labour against capital, decidedly in confused and masked manners, but a struggle that has the potential to galvanize resistance against neoliberalism. When the Tata Group, forced by the long-standing struggle of the small farmers and landless labourers in Singur, was reported to be planning a move to Pantnagar in Uttarakhand, there were simultaneous reports of a possible Singur waiting for them in Pantnagar. A Singur in Pantnagar! That is the real significance of the struggle of the landless labourers and peasants of Singur.
Right from day one, the West Bengal government and the mainstream media has been building up the case for the manufacturing plant in Singur on the basis of half-truths and untruths. For a long time, the West Bengal government continued denying the fact that it had “acquired” a large tract of the proposed 1000 acres from unwilling farmers by using coercion, strong-arm tactics and certainly without their consent. Towards the later part of 2006, after considerable protests and a public hearing organized by intellectuals and activists, it had to finally accept it’s own earlier statements as false. Now it is known by all and sundry that 411.11 acres of the total 997.1 acres has been acquired without consent of the relevant farmers. For a long time, again, the West Bengal government continued denying the fact that most of the land that was sought to be “acquired” was fertile and multi-cropped agricultural land. It was only when earlier this year the Supreme Court pointed towards a possible violation of the Land Acquisition Act, responding to a petition filed for immediate halt of the Nano car project, that the West Bengal government finally accepted that it had been willfully misleading the public in this regard for so long; the SC had pointed out that acquiring and using fertile, multi-crop agricultural land for industrial purposes goes against even the Land Acquisition Act, which the West Bengal government was, paradoxically, trying to use to “acquire” that land. Now it has been established beyond any shadow of doubt that the land on which the proposed plant is to come up is, in the main, fertile, multi-cropped agricultural land. Another myth that had been in circulation for some time was the following: the land in Singur could not be used for agricultural purposes for most parts of the year because of water logging. This claim has also been contested and shown to be untrue. Now it is accepted by all serious commentators that the land had, before being fenced off by the West Bengal police, been in constant use throughout the year for growing various agricultural crops, and that it provided livelihood for more than 12,000 families. Even though these and other such claims of the West Bengal government and the mainstream media have been refuted point by point, over and over again, with facts and arguments and lot of patience and care, they keep turning up ever and ever again like bad coins. They will, as long as the social forces whose interest they represent continue their efforts to hegemonize society; and we will continue refuting them point by point, with patience and care and logic and facts.
But even when these particular canards are discounted, there seems to be a larger argument for industrialization that Singur purportedly represents. The West Bengal government and large sections of the mainstream media tend to equate Singur with industrialization and portray any and every opposition to Singur as opposition to industrialization. The apparent strength, or shall we say charm, of this argument becomes obvious when we see even an preeminent thinker like Amartya Sen falling for it. But this argument is deeply flawed. Opposition to Singur is not opposition to industrialization, it is opposition to neoliberal capitalist industrialization. Opposition to Singur is opposition to the conflation of industrialization with neoliberalism, a scenario where the State steps up it’s efforts to subsidize capital and shore up it’s profits while capital externalizes it’s costs onto labour and the environment with impunity. It is this model of industrialization that we oppose.
An alternative model of industrialization, as far as we can see, would operate in an exactly opposite fashion. It would tax capital and not subsidize it, prevent capital from externalizing it’s costs onto labour and the environment rather than facilitating it, intervene in decisions related to the choice of technique to be used in production, force private capital to do proper cost-benefit analysis before embarking on a (socially) costly industrial project, intervene through fiscal and monetary policy to maintain overall levels of aggregate demand and try to ensure full employment with living wages for workers. In the alternative vision, the State would use tax revenues to build infrastructure, provide social sector services and closely monitor and improve the well-being of the people. Singur, and the model of industrialization that it stands, takes us in the exact opposite direction; that is why it needs to be opposed. It destroys livelihoods tied to agriculture without creating compensating jobs in industry, it willfully snatches away fertile, multi-crop agricultural land for industrial purposes when so much fallow (and other unused and misused) land is there to be used, it externalizes the costs of production on the most vulnerable sections of the population and the environment, and all this while the State steps in to massively subsidize private capital even further. If, therefore, due to the struggle of the project affected people the Tata’s finally leave West Bengal, it should call for rejoicing not for middle-class chest-beating that is so much on display these days. For it would be one of the important victories in the emerging struggle against neoliberalism in India.Cost and Benfits
In this article we will try to study details of the costs and benefits of the proposed manufacturing plant in Singur on the basis of information that is available in the public domain. But a caveat is necessary. This is not a full blown cost-benefit analysis because we shall not venture to quantify the indirect benefits of possible net employment generation and the income that might arise from there. At this point, it is not even clear whether there will be positive net employment generation; it is not at all obvious, in other words, that the employment destruction entailed by the project will be exceeded by the employment generated by it. Moreover, a full cost-benefit analysis would require much more information than has presently been made available by the West bengal government; on the basis of the available information, which pertains mostly to the benfits that the West Bengal government plans to make available to the Tata’s, we shall mainly try to approximately quantify the costs to the exchequer, and ultimately to the people of the state.
A careful study of the details relating to the proposed project in Singur, to the extent possible by the publicly available information, is important for two main reasons. First, it is important to do a dispassionate analysis of the costs and benefits of this project; since the West Bengal government has been continually making largely unsubstantiated claims about the putative benefits of this project, it is high time we carefully analyzed the foundations of this claim. Second, this project is very much in line with the current trend of neoliberal capitalist industrialization in India anchored tightly in the visions of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs); hence a study of this project will highlight, and help us evaluate, many of the important characteristics of neoliberal capitalist industrialization that has been envisioned and aggressively pushed by the Indian state since the early 1990s. Parenthetically, one should also note how acceptance of the logic this project signals the gradual dissolving of social democracy in India: from”managing” the conflict between labour and capital, social democrats are increasingly moving towards “managing” labour for capital.
The main document that we will use for the purposes of this study is the text of the recent “agreement” signed between the Government of West Bengal, the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and the Tata Motor Ltd. (TML) pertaining to the proposed manufacturing plant in Singur. By a careful analysis of the information contained in this document, and complementing this with some more information from other sources we will, hopefully, be able to arrive at a true picture of the costs and benefits of this project. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of the agreement, let us remind ourselves about the severe difficulties that we have faced over the past few years in just trying to get hold of the information that is relevant to this project. Recall that the details of the “deal” wasn’t made public initially because the West Bengal government believed it was a “trade secret”. Once this argument was properly trashed, the government shifted gears. During this period, it wasn’t made public despite repeated Right To Information (RTI) applications because, according to the government, the Tatas didn’t want it to be made public! Finally what has been made public, mainly because of pressure from the standing committee on industry of the West Bengal state assembly, are only parts of the “deal”; this all we have for the purposes of study and analysis. The TML filed a case in the Calcutta High Court and got a stay against the rest of it being made public. What is there in the rest of it? We, and the more than 12000 project affected families in Singur, can only guess. The entire episode, to say the least, is patently undemocratic, and makes a mockery of the intent of the recently passed Right to Information Act. One does not, of course, discern even an iota of concern about this important matter displayed by the “peoples’ government” in West Bengal!

To read the entire article click Farewell to the Tatas: Costs and benefits of the Tata-Singur Project, a detailed dissection of the deal at Sanhati

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis

2008-10-14T15:33:00.000+05:30

Aditya Chakrabortty ,The Guardian

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.
The news comes at a critical point in the world's negotiations on biofuels policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next week in Hokkaido, Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and come under intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use of plant-derived fuels.
It will also put pressure on the British government, which is due to release its own report on the impact of biofuels, the Gallagher Report. The Guardian has previously reported that the British study will state that plant fuels have played a "significant" part in pushing up food prices to record levels. Although it was expected last week, the report has still not been released.
"Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat."
Rising food prices have pushed 100m people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel prices as "the first real economic crisis of globalisation".
President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."
Even successive droughts in Australia, calculates the report, have had a marginal impact. Instead, it argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices.
Since April, all petrol and diesel in Britain has had to include 2.5% from biofuels. The EU has been considering raising that target to 10% by 2020, but is faced with mounting evidence that that will only push food prices higher.
"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period.
It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.
Other reviews of the food crisis looked at it over a much longer period, or have not linked these three factors, and so arrived at smaller estimates of the impact from biofuels. But the report author, Don Mitchell, is a senior economist at the Bank and has done a detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, which allows much closer examination of the link between biofuels and food supply.
The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact.
Supporters of biofuels argue that they are a greener alternative to relying on oil and other fossil fuels, but even that claim has been disputed by some experts, who argue that it does not apply to US production of ethanol from plants.
"It is clear that some biofuels have huge impacts on food prices," said Dr David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser, last night. "All we are doing by supporting these is subsidising higher food prices, while doing nothing to tackle climate change."

Hidden Costs of the Tata-Singur Agreement

2008-10-14T14:55:00.001+05:30

By Dipankar Basu, Sanhati

The Tata Group of Companies is one of the largest business conglomerates in India today with about 100 large companies in its fold. With the might of the Indian State firmly behind it, monopoly capital in India has started a move to aggressively acquire foreign assets. In the last few years, the Tata Group has been leading this acquisition spree on behalf of Indian big capital, making forays not only in Asia and Africa but also in the heartland of world capitalism: USA and Europe. Let us briefly take a look at the record of the Tata Group with regard to foreign acquisitions.
In January 2007, the Tata Group pulled off India’s biggest ever takeover of a foreign company to buy Anglo-Dutch steel-maker Corus for $12 billion; this acquisition made the combined entity (Tata-Corus) the world’s fifth largest producer of steel. In March 2004, the Tata Group acquired South Korea’s Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company for $102 million; this was followed by the acquisition of a 21 percent stake in Spanish bus maker Hispano Carrocera for $18 million with an option to pick up the remaining stake at a later date. Around the same time, Tata Technologies, another company in the Tata fold, which provides automotive engineering and design services, bought Britain’s Incat International for $53 million.
Tata Consultancy Services, which was earlier a division of Tata Sons and a rising star in the Tata Group, has been among the most aggressive shoppers for foreign companies. It has acquired six companies in the past few years, with the net value of the deals close to $100 million; these include FNS of Australia, which was acquired for $26 million and Chile’s outsourcing major Comicrom, which was bought for $23 million. When the Tata Group acquired the former state-run, international telecom carrier, VSNL, a few years ago, it was on it’s way to becoming a major telecom player in the global markets. To enhance it’s position, it acquired undersea cable company Tyco of the US for $130 million, Internet service provider Dishnet’s India division for $64.28 million and international telecom service provider Teleglobe of the US for $239 million.
Following its acquisition of Hindustan Lever Chemicals, Tata Chemicals was on the lookout for a steady supply of phosphoric acid for its newly acquired plant at Haldia, West Bengal. Accordingly, it took over two overseas companies for a total value of $215 million: Indo Maroc Phosphore of Morocco in March 2005 and Brunner Mond Group of Britain in December 2007. Morocco, by the way, produces over 50 percent of the world’s rock phosphate.
In 2000, Tata Tea bought British giant Tetley for a $407 million, and started looking for similar deals to strenghthen it’s global position in the tea and related drinks business. This search led to acquisition of 33 percent stake in the South African company Joekels Tea Packers for an undisclosed amount and 30 percent stake in the US-based favoured water manufacturer Glaceau for $677 million, the acquisition of the US-based Good Earth Corp for $32 million and acquisition of the Czech Republic’s firm Jemca for an unknown amount.
India Hotels, the hotel branch of the Tata Group, acquired several hotels abroad for $121 million in the past few years. It is reported to have set aside $100 million for future acquisitions in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the US. In December 2006, it had acquired W, a hotel at the Woolloomooloo Bay in Sydney; it was followed by the taking over of the management of The Pierre, a luxurious landmark hotel on New York’s Fifth Avenue. India Hotels, which runs the Taj Group of hotels, has 39 hotels in India and 18 worldwide. A recent acquisition of India Hotels was Campton Place Hotel in San Francisco
This is not a complete list; it is just a representative list of the Tata Group’s recent foreign acquisitions. It is only meant to provide some ballpark figures about the amount that the Tata Group has spent in the last few years in expanding it’s business abroad and in acquisition of costly strategic corporate assets. This decidedly incomplete information about the Tata Groups `acquisition spree’ is also meant to serve as an introduction to the agreement that was recently signed by the West Bengal Government and Tata Motors Ltd. (TML) for setting up `a manufacturing Plant for Automobile Products’ in Police Station Singur of District Hoogly in West Bengal. If we add up the figures for Tata Group’s overseas acquisitions, we arrive at a rough figure of $14,062 million, which converts to roughly Rs. 56,248 crore (using an exchange rate of Rs 40/$).
Of course what this implies is that a corporation which can invest more than Rs. 56,000 crores for acquisition of foreign companies requires the financial support of India’s taxpayers to set up a plant in India!
Because that is what the recently concluded agreement between the TML and the West Bengal government boils down to. Take point 7(a) of the agreement as an example. This refers to the loans that the WBIDC will give to the TML in the form of tax holidays for 30 years (i.e., TML will not have to pay the usual taxes to the WB government for about 30 years). The loan will be essentially at a nominal interest rate of 0%, which is just another way of saying that the TML gets a loan at negative real interest rates (i.e., negative of the annual rate of inflation). So, in real terms the WBIDC will not only give a loan to the TML but will also pay interest to TML for the loan that it has given to the TML! From the perspective of TML, it would be difficult to think of a better example of `having the cake and eating it too’. But make no mistake. This largesse to the corporate sector is essential if we are to embark on a path of industrialization. Or so the West Bengal government would have us believe.
The last part of 7(a) seems even better. It says: `WBIDC will ensure that the loan under this head is paid within 60 days of the close of the previous year (on 31st March) failing which WBIDC will be liable to compensate TML for the financial inconvenience caused @ 1.5 times the bank rate prevailing at the time on the amount due for the period of such delay’. What does this mean?
It means that if the WBIDC is not able to make the loan to TML within 60 days of the close of the financial year, it will penalise ITSELF by compensating TML at 1.5 times the bank rate. Wonderful! And what is the interest rate charged on the loan? 0%. Fantastic. What if TML is not able or willing to pay back the loan? Doesn’t matter. WBIDC will move on. There is no mention of any penalty that might be slapped on TML for failure to pay back the loan (principal or interest)! Any collateral? No. This is `prudent banking’ at it’s best! But make no mistake. This novel and ultimately unbeatable form of prudent banking is essential if West Bengal is to embark on the path of industrialization. Or so the West Bengal government would have us believe.
But there is more. 7(c) of the agreement says: `The West Bengal Govt. will provide TML a loan of 200 crores @ 1% interest per year repayable in 5 equal installments starting from the 21st year from the date of the disbursement of the loan’. This loan, moreover, `will be disbursed within 60 days of this agreement’. This loan will not only cover the payments that TML has to make for the 645.6 acres of land that has been given to it by the government but also cover it’s other possible costs of setting up the plant and starting operations; and the real interest rate is again negative! Then there is the `virtual gift of 650 acres of prime land to Tata Housing Development Company (THDC) in Rajarhat New Town and in the adjoining Bhangar Rajarhat Area Development Authority for building an IT and residential township along with WBIDC as a partner‘, which was portrayed as `infrastructural support’ for the Singur project!
It is important, therefore, for us to recognize the true character of agreements like the one `struck’ between the TML and the West Bengal government. It is important to understand how such `agreements’ look like under a neo-liberal regime. It is important for left and progressive activists, but also the concerned citizens, to realize that all such agreements essentially are geared towards the State effectively subsidizing capital with the revenues earned from direct and indirect taxes, which anyway the corporate entities always try to avoid paying. As has been demonstrated, the Tata Group has enough resources to buy out European and US firms, but when it comes to `industrializing’ a poor state like West Bengal, it requires soft loans (with effectively negative interest rates) and other subsidies like tax exemptions to even consider making `investments’. One must ask the functionaries of the West Bengal government whether this is industrialization or exploitation? It seems to us that the entire TML-Singur project is a net loss for the people of West Bengal. This is simply because the losses are direct, immediate and tangible (with the money going out of the exchequer, revenue loss in terms of tax rebates, loss of agricultural land and loss of livelihoods) whereas the gains are intangible and at the moment residing in the realm of possibility (possible employment generation, possible investment-friendly image and what not).
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Agreement between Tata Motors Ltd., Government of West Bengal and WBIDC
1. Tata Motors Ltd. (TML) was intending to set up a manufacturing Plant for Automobile Products including “Tata Small Car” to manufacture 250,000 cars per annum on 2 shift basis which could be expanded to 350,000 on 3 shift basis. In addition, it would have several Vendors and act as a mother plant for many aggregates to tune of 500,000 cars. In this connection, TML was considering locating the plant in the States of Uttarakhand/ Himachal Pradesh in view of the fiscal incentive package for the rapid industrialization being made available by the Govt. of India to new Industries in these States which has been attracting a large number of industries to these States. The incentive package in Uttarakhand/Himachal Pradesh consists of:-(a) 100% exemption from Excise Duty for 10 years.(b) 100% exemption from Corporate Income Tax for first 5 years and 30% exemption from Corporate Income Tax for next 5 years.
2. The Government of West Bengal (GoWB) is keen to take appropriate steps for rapid industrialization in West Bengal and in this connection wanted to attract some major Automobile Projects to the State. The Government of West Bengal approached TML to persuade them to locate an Automobile Project including the project to manufacture “Tata Small Car” in West Bengal. TML showed interest in locating the plant in West Bengal, provided the State gave Fiscal incentive equivalent to the value of total incentives it would have received by locating the plant in Uttarakhand / Himachal Pradesh. GoWB offered to match the financial incentives in equivalent terms and invited TML to set up the Small Car plant in West Bengal entailing investment of over Rs. 1500 crores by TML. In addition, Vendors supporting the project are likely to make further investment of over Rs. 500 crores.
3. Since then numerous discussions have been held and based on this understanding, GoWB proceeded with identification of various lands for this mega project. Land of approximately 1000 acres chosen in P. S. Singur of District Hooghly was finalized with TML. West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Ltd. (WBIDC) commenced the process of acquisition of this land. The process was completed with the Declaration of Award under Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act, and thereafter WBIDC has obtained mutation of ownership in its name in the Record-of-Rights, and conversion of usage of the land from agriculture to factory.
4. WBIDC is in possession of 997.11 acres of land, which has been acquired under the Land Acquisition Act. Out of this, an area admeasuring 645.67 acres will be leased to TML for setting up the Automobile Project including the small car plant, while an area admeasuring 290 acres will be leased to the vendors to this Automobile Project approved by TML (ancillary and component manufacturing units), 14.33 acres will be handed over by WBIDC to WBSEB only for construction of 220/132/33 KV substation and the balance admeasuring 47.11 acres will be used by WBIDC for rehabilitation activities for the needy families amongst the Project affected persons.
5. The terms of lease to TML for the 645.67 acres of land for the mother plant are described below. In addition, WBIDC will provide on lease 290 acres of land to the Vendors selected and approved by TML on payment of Premium equal to the actual cost of acquisition plus incidentals, to be calculated on the basis of the total acquisition cost and other incidental expenses expended by WBIDC or any of its subsidiaries (duly certified by its auditor) averaged over the total land acquired. The lease rental payable per year per acre by the vendors will be Rs. 8000/- per acre for the first 45 (forty five) years and Rs. 16000/- per acre for the next 45 (forty five) years. The initial lease tenure will be 90 years. On expiry of 90 years, the lease terms will be fixed on mutually agreed terms at that point of time.
6. The parties also discussed mutually to finalise the package of incentives required in order to enable GoWB to fulfill its commitment to match in equivalent financial terms the fiscal incentive foregone by TML in Uttarakhand. The Net Present Value (NPV) computation of benefits that the project would have received in Uttarakhand is attached in Annexure I which is agreed to by all the parties. Sample computation of benefits in West Bengal with stated assumptions is given in Annexure II which is accepted by all parties as agreed basis of computation. The NPV is calculated @ 11%.7. Accordingly, it is finally agreed, in supersession of all previous decisions and agreements in this regard, that for this mega project, the fiscal incentives under Industrial Promotion Assistance in terms of the West Bengal Incentive Scheme (WBIS 2004), assistance towards land cost and interest subsidy in the form of a loan against a quantum of the term loan to be taken by TML for this project will be offered by GoWB as follows:-
(a) WBIDC will provide Industrial Promotion Assistance in the form of a Loan to TML at 0.1% interest per annum for amounts equal to gross VAT and CST received by GoWB in each of the previous years ended 31st March on sale of “Tata Small Car” from the date of commencement of sales of the small car. This benefit will continue till the balance amount of the Uttarakhand benefit (after deducting the amount as stated in para 7b and 7c below) is reached on net present value basis, after which it shall be discontinued. The loan with interest will be repayable in annual installments starting from 31st year of commencement of sale from the plant. The loan availed in the first year will be repaid in the 31st year and the loan availed in the 2nd year will be repaid in the 32nd year and so on. WBIDC will ensure that the loan under this head is paid within 60 days of the close of the previous year (on 31st March) failing which WBIDC will be liable to compensate TML for the financial inconvenience caused @ 1.5 times the bank rate prevailing at the time on the amount due for the period of such delay. TML & GoWB will make best efforts to maximize sale of products from the “Small Car Plant” in the State of West Bengal.
(b) WBIDC will provide 645.67 acres of Land to Tata Motors Ltd on a 90 year lease, on an annual lease rental of Rs. 1 crore per year for first 5 years with an increase @ 25% after every 5 years till 30 years. On expiry of 30 years, the lease rental will be fixed at Rs. 5 crores per year, with an increase @ 30% after every 10 years till the 60th year. On the expiry of 60 years, the lease rental will be fixed at Rs. 20 crores per year, which will remain unchanged till the 90th year. On expiry of 90 years the lease terms will be fixed on mutually agreed terms at that point of time. The benefit on account of land would be calculated as the total land area leased out to TML multiplied by the cost of acquisition calculated in the manner as provided in para 5 less NPV of rent payable during 60 years.(c) The West Bengal Govt. will provide to TML a loan of Rs. 200 crores bearing @ 1% interest per year repayable in 5 equal annual installments starting from the 21st year from the date of disbursement of loan. This loan will be disbursed within 60 days of signing of this Agreement.
(d) The West Bengal Government will provide Electricity for the project at Rs. 3/- per KWH. In case of more than Rs. 0.25 per KWH increase in tariff in every block of five years, the Government will provide relief through additional compensation to neutralize such additional increase.
8. It is also agreed that the computation of the comparison of benefits in Annexure I and II will be changed if there are any changes in the rates of excise duty and corporate income tax during the next 10 years.

A conversation with Amit Bhaduri: alternatives in development

2008-10-14T14:52:00.000+05:30

From Sanhati.com

A few of us had a discussion with Professor Amit Bhaduri on his concept of “Development with Dignity”. In the struggle of ordinary people against the aggression of big capital in our country, this concept provides a vibrant locus of activity and future direction. It may also be important in the broader aim of social change. We present a draft of our conversation.
- Meher Engineer, Rabin Chakraborty, Subhasis Mukhopadhyay, Soumya Guha Thakurta, Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri
Click here to read A conversation with Amit Bhaduri: alternatives in development [PDF, Bengali, 2.3 MB] »

Africa’s Climate Roadmap: From Johannesburg through Africa to Copenhagen

2008-09-30T10:37:00.001+05:30

“Africa’s Climate Roadmap, from Johannesburg through Africa to Copenhagen” was adopted at the twelfth session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN-12), which took place from 7-12 June 2008, in Johannesburg, South Africa. In our climate change discussions we highlighted the urgency for Africa to articulate a common position during the ongoing climate change negotiations for a strengthened international agreement beyond 2012, and to exploit the opportunity to build consensus on the complex issues of climate change and sustainable development for the benefit of the continent. Africa agreed to put forward a shared vision based on scientific evidence and broad political consensus. That shared vision would have several key elements: the future climate change regime should accommodate the priorities for Africa of sustainable development, poverty reduction and attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); increased support should be provided under the regime for capacity-building, financing and technology development and transfer for adaptation and mitigation in Africa (the means of implementation); and the agreement should result in the stabilization of emissions in the atmosphere. A deal on climate change requires a deal on development, including Africa.
African Ministers of Environment have repeatedly stressed the importance of giving adaptation a higher priority in order to balance it with mitigation on the international negotiating agenda. Africa will remain vulnerable even if, globally, emissions peak and decline in the next 10 to 15 years. African countries are taking action to address the impacts of climate change. However, our efforts will not be effective without international support. The longer the international community delays in providing support for adaptation programmes in Africa, the more costly it is going to be in the future. No agreement on the strengthening of the international climate architecture, when we meet in Copenhagen at the end of 2009, will be considered balanced if adaptation is not accorded much higher priority. Our deliberations in Johannesburg stressed that a future agreement should emphasize the importance of providing assistance to developing countries with adaptation technologies, finance and capacity building. In particular there is an urgent need to upscale adaptation financing that is new and additional and that does not divert existing official development assistance away from poverty eradication and other development priorities. It is our firm belief that these new sources of finance must be channeled through the Kyoto Protocol’s Adaptation Fund. Political conditionalities on funding African development are unacceptable. In our decisions we have requested the UN agencies, Bretton Woods Institutions, African Development Bank (AfDB) and other development partners to support African countries in taking measures to build economic and ecosystem resilience against climatic variability and change, and to effectively implement the Bali Action Plan.
At the regional and national levels, African ministers have committed to integrate climate change adaptation measures into national and, where appropriate, regional development plans, policies and strategies, with a view to ensuring adequate adaptation to climate change in such areas as water resources, food and energy security, and management of coastal and marine resources. The framework will also include stand-alone adaptation activities, building African capacity to respond to extreme events and changes in the short, medium and long-term. At AMCEN-12, we adopted a wide ranging decision regarding the development of a Comprehensive Framework of African Climate Change Programmes. This Framework will address the critical need to integrate existing and future climate change initiatives and programmes under a consolidated agenda, thereby ensuring greater coordination and coherence in the implementation and review of climate change initiatives and sustainable development plans in Africa. This Framework should be ready for adoption when African Environment Ministers meet next year at a Special AMCEN Session.
In this regard, several important events have recently taken place to solidify an integrated African climate and development agenda.
Africa’s Ministers of Environment and Health took strides toward integrating climate and development when they adopted the Libreville Declaration at the Inter-ministerial Conference for Health and Environment in Africa, held from 26-29 August 2008, in Libreville, Gabon. The Declaration will be submitted to the African Union (AU) Heads of State Summit for consideration and adoption.At AMCEN-12, we launched a call for the modification of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), to enhance its contribution to sustainable development efforts on the continent and to provide increased support for the introduction of climate change mitigation measures and technologies in African countries. African governments, the private sector, civil society and the UN system have gathered in Dakar, Senegal, from 3-5 September 2008, at the first African Carbon Forum to address these concerns. The inequitable geographic distribution of CDM projects must be addressed in the second review of the Kyoto Protocol to be undertaken in Poznań, Poland, in December 2008.
With the window for CDM projects under the first commitment period rapidly closing, African governments and our development partners need to scale-up efforts to maximize the development potentials of the CDM. During the next commitment periods under the Kyoto Protocol, the potential of the carbon market to contribute to low carbon growth and sustainable development will grow by orders of magnitude. If all developed countries took on much more stringent emissions reduction targets, aiming for cuts of 80-95% below 1990 levels by 2050, and if they purchased half of their reductions in the developing world at a carbon price of at least US$10 per ton, then financial flows to developing countries could gradually grow beyond US$100 billion per year by mid-century. Capturing even a modest share of these financial opportunities could make part of the difference in the choice between fossil-fuel energy and more expensive renewable energy sources. But then the international conditions must be in place. And we must also mobilize public funding leveraging private investment beyond carbon markets. More ambitious mid-term targets for emission cuts by all developed countries, towards the upper end of the range of 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020, would be critical to stimulate demand in the carbon market. The need to develop large scale CDM projects in Africa is also important. However, many economies in Africa, where the energy, transport, construction or industrial sectors are in early stages of development, have relatively small mitigation potentials. We must therefore also find ways to seize the opportunities that exist by developing methodologies for appropriate small scale mitigation projects, simple in structure and finance, but with high contributions to sustainable development. The mitigation challenge for most of Africa is about avoiding emissions (rather than emission reductions) – not to follow the dirty development path of the North in order to get cleaner later, but to develop in a more sustainable manner in the first place.
To read the rest portion click:
http://www.iisd.ca/climate-l/bulletin/guestarticle/guestarticle5.html

World Vision: Global Leaders ‘Dismally Off-Track’ for Reaching their Own Goals Addressing Poverty

2008-09-29T18:29:00.002+05:30

‘Governments Lack Political Will to Implement Programs Preventing Millions of Child Deaths Each Year’. Humanitarian Agency Rededicating Efforts; Earmarking $450 Million for Maternal and Child Health Programs

New York, United States and Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Thursday, September 25, 2008 -- (Business Wire India) As the world’s leaders convene at the United Nations this week, one leading international humanitarian organization contends progress is “dismally off-track” for meeting 2015 goals for helping address poverty and injustice.“If the heads of state, business and financial leaders and others ignore our call and fail to act, the Millennium Development Goals will, quite simply, be unattainable,” says Dean R. Hirsch, president of World Vision International. “This month’s meeting is the last chance for the international community to demonstrate its resolve and honour its commitment to the world’s poorest people.”Hirsch noted that among all eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), reaching numbers four, five and six – reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating AIDS, malaria and other diseases - is foundational to addressing severe poverty in the developing world. Moreover, he noted nations have the resources, including food and medicine.“We have the solutions to implement and thereby prevent the deaths of millions of children each year,” says Hirsch, who is addressing world leaders and UN officials September 25 in a series of meetings on the MDGs. “But governments lack the political will.”The goals were established in 2000. Meetings this week at the UN are a reminder that world leaders are halfway to the date they set to accomplish the goals. For more information on each of the goals, visit, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.

“Recognising that good health is fundamental to breaking the cycle of poverty, and is foundational to a child’s well being, World Vision has placed community-based maternal and child health at the core of our global health strategy, and we are investing heavily in efforts to help achieve MDGs 4, 5 and 6,” Hirsch said. That investment currently totals about $450 million on health. “World Vision is increasing it commitment with more money and more staff to more effectively target community-based maternal and child health and promote access to primary care,” Hirsch says. “We believe that in three years we can significantly reduce malnutrition for children under five and improve the health of up to five million children.”

Chennai, September 24, 2008: Speaking on the event from Chennai the National Director of World Vision India, Dr. Jayakumar Christian says, “In India, the situation is concerning.” The United Nations Children’s Fund has said that it is a “fundamental truth” that unless India and China achieve major improvements in health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, gender equality and child protection, global efforts to reach the MDGs will fail.“We strongly urge the Prime Minister, who is attending the event to increase investment in the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) – the largest programme in the world focused on child survival and maternal health to move towards achievement of MDGs 4 and 5,” says Dr. Jayakumar, “All we are asking for is the promise of ‘universalisation of ICDS with quality’ made in the National Common Minimum Programme of the ruling coalition be kept – for the sake of India’s children.”Speaking at various forums on the MDGs, Hirsch notes that if national leaders accept responsibility for the inadequate progress towards the MDGs, and agree to replicate and scale up successes, there is “a genuine possibility of fulfilling the promises made to the world’s poorest people in 2000,” Hirsch says. “This is a moral imperative. Every child who dies in extreme poverty represents an unacceptable loss of human potential.”

Editor’s Note:For greater insight into progress – and lack thereof – in reaching the MDGs, see “Last Chance – Child Health and the Millennium Development Goals,” a report published this month by World Vision at http://www.globalempowerment.org/PolicyAdvocacy/pahome2.5.nsf/alleports/1979C3016C3D6DEF882574CD0021444D/$file/LastChance_WEB.pdf

For press backgrounder on World Vision India click here
Media contact detailsDean R. Owen- New York,World Vision,+1253.906.8645, dowen@worldvision.org
Joy Christina- Chennai,World Vision India,+91 98400 64165,
joy_christina@wvi.org

Climate Change and India

2008-09-20T09:55:00.000+05:30

New Delhi: Climate change is likely to have a much greater impact onIndia than other countries in similar positions, according to anassessment by the South Asia regional office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido).
A Unido spokesperson said here on Wednesday the extra impact on Indiawas due to a unique combination of its geography, diverse populationcharacteristics and extremely high dependence on fossil fuels.
India's dependence on fossil fuels such as coal and oil for energygeneration and transport could lead to heavy environmental, social andregulatory costs, causing a drain on the nation's resources as adirect impact of Climate Change over the next century, says theassessment report.
The assessment is based on the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) 2007 ofBritain, reports IANS.
According to calculations done by the CDP, cost of climate changecould have a major impact on the Indian economy by causing a 9-13 percent loss in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in real termsby the year 2100.
The report noted that increase in temperature in India could be higherthan the global average, as predicted by the United NationsIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
It said that the country was witnessing rapidly changing andincreasingly unpredictable patterns of monsoon and rainfall andpredicted that a decline in crop yields of up to 30 per cent will benoticed in India and other South Asian countries by 2080.
India would see a rise in sea levels which could submerge coastalareas and also infuse salt water into fresh water sources. This inturn could create a large number of so-called climate change refugeesnot only in India but also from across the borders into the country,thereby leading to further strain on resources, the report pointedout.
It further said that the increased pace of retreating of the Himalayanglaciers would reduce India's fresh water sources in the future.
India will witness an increased incidence of more severe vector-bornediseases such as dengue, bacterial and arboviral diseases andincreased frequency of extreme weather conditions such as droughts andfloods, the report said.
According to the IPCC, India will experience the greatest increase inenergy and greenhouse gas emissions in the world if it sustains eightper cent annual economic growth or more as its primary energy demandwill then multiply at least three to four times its present levels.

Not playing God in mission

2008-09-17T16:36:00.000+05:30

A great interview in Christianity Today with Jayakumar Christian, head of World Vision India (a Christian humanitarian organization, as its website puts it. Interesting to see they have Rajdeep Sardesai's endorsement prominently flashing across the homepage! He's a famous journalist and founder of the 24/7 TV channel CNN-IBN.), on mission, focusing on the work they've done in one district (I suspect it's in Tamil Nadu. I've never heard of Gudiyatham district) in reducing bonded labor by children. He seems very level-headed, humble, deeply committed to the Gospel, and respectful of India's religious heritage as well, including the deep religiosity of India, at a level that most Westerners simply cannot appreciate until they've witnessed it firsthand. Here's some bits that really caught my attention.
But was seeing God in their liberation a theological shift for these Hindus?I don't think it's a theological shift for the average Hindu Indian. For Indians, God is more involved in day-to-day life than most Western Christians' theology would allow. The average Hindu need not be introduced to God in that sense. They need to be introduced to the name of that God—Jesus. I've said many times that we do not need to break our heads in India convincing any Indian about the existence of God. The challenge is, "What is the name of this God who is involved with the poor?" That's where Christian distinctiveness—and divisiveness—is felt. Our privilege in World Vision is being able to call attention to the name of God as Jesus through our lives, relationships, and actions, not in a divisive manner, but in a distinctive manner.Is there suspicion that your development work is a subtext for proselytizing?There is suspicion in certain quarters. But we insist that in World Vision India, we do not trade our God for development. We do not trade our God to buy relationships. He is too precious for us to be bargaining with, too precious to be bargained for. He is not for sale.So proselytizing, conversion through coercive means, is a non-issue for us. Not just because we respect the people we serve. That's one part of the story. But also because we value the God we worship.And here's another part -- about access and linkages. One doesn't think about these things, especially not India's privileged, or even middle classes -- we take it for granted. For instance, the fact that I can speak English -- a sign of education, access, power and status -- opens doors automatically. In the stratified and inherently inegalitarian mileu of India, walking into a bank or talking to an official is a hugely intimidating experience for the poor.
You seem to think about poverty less in terms of prosperity and more in terms of access.The word we use is linkages. Poverty is the absence of linkages, the absence of connections with others. So we look for opportunities to link powerless communities with people with good intentions, people with good hearts—government officials, health officials, panchayat presidents, headmasters in schools—who have an influence in the local area and who mean good. We work closely with them.We also work hard on our own linkages. Here in India, there are government officials in very senior positions who are most willing to design programs that serve poor communities—if we can link with them and help them understand the needs and opportunities there.The next part flows from this -- cultivating the powerful (and the wealthy) as partners in development. Most importantly, I find this attitude absolutely admirable -- to constantly beware of playing God.
The truth is that both the powerful and agents of transformation need to transform our understanding of power. It is not enough to simply play the power game better or more humbly. We need to come deeply to believe that our basis of power is not our professionalism or connections or resources. Those are only tools to be used. The basis for our power is our dependence on God. If we do not remember these fundamentals, it is so easy for us in World Vision to play God in the lives of the poor.What form does 'playing God' take in mission?You have to understand that my assumption is that the poor are poor because someone else is trying to play God in their lives. Human beings were designed to submit their spirit only to the Creator. Any attempt to take the place of the Creator leads to poverty. I talked about this with the community yesterday several times, and you could see heads nodding. Only God can direct how I should live my life, when my child should go to work, what my child should be doing. But others had taken that role of control in the lives of men, women, and children in that community.In the very process of breaking the human tendency to play God, though, I can begin to play God. Because I have similar power. I have the power to approve or not approve development programs; I have the power of connections; I know people in high places. For the agent of transformation to refuse to play God requires great strength of character.So how does one use one's power without playing God?We constantly remind ourselves that our organization is dependent on God. We might have budgets, strategies, professionalism, and sophistication in organizational practices, but those do not explain our effectiveness. Our effectiveness is explained by our dependence on God.I remember talking to one of my colleagues just three weeks ago. An elderly Hindu lady in his community came and handed a small wooden cross to him. She said, "I have figured out that this is the secret of your success." She said she had kept another cross for herself. I thought to myself, Who told her this? She must have observed his life. I was so grateful to God when I heard that.

Adapting to Climate Change: Can We Do It Again?

2008-09-15T10:58:00.001+05:30

Dangerous climate change will not be prevented by reduced emissions. The damage is already done. For many vulnerable societies, the priority must be adaptation.
About 15 million years ago, dense African forests began drying up to be replaced by open savannah. Tree-dwelling primates eventually descended and found that the new environment suited walking.

Humanity has been adapting more or less successfully to climate changes ever since. After the last ice age ended between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, agriculture and urban settlements developed and humans gradually colonized all but the most hostile environments. But our transformation of the environment is now coming back to haunt us. Man-made climate change is rapidly increasing temperatures and sea levels, altering rainfall patterns, and producing more violent storms.

“People and species have always adapted to changing climates,” say Kit Vaughan, a WWF advisor on climate change adaptation. “What is different is the speed and the scale of the change we are facing.”

The areas most at risk are small islands, dry areas in Africa, large river deltas in Asia, and polar regions. The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) identified 100 countries most vulnerable to climate change. The vast majority are poor countries, many crowded with people living on vulnerable floodplains or drought-prone badlands. Whether an individual, an economy, or a society can deal with the impacts of climate change depends on its adaptive capacity.

“Take Holland, it has a very strong economy, but is very low lying,” says Vaughan. “So it has high risks, but a very high adaptive capacity. They can build dikes and pumps. Bangladesh has an equally high level of risk, but a very small adaptive capacity.”

Adaptive capacity involves a complex combination of knowledge, institutions, technology, and money – ingredients that are scarce in poor countries. The IIED says these countries will need billions of dollars a year to adapt.

Without successful adaptation, however, the World Bank projects, the costs of climate change could be up to 100 billion dollars a year, pushing poor countries further into poverty. And the poorer they become, the less they can adapt. The IIED warns of “chronic famine or forced migration of tens of millions of people,” citing the example of Africa and Asia’s coastal areas and river deltas. (knowledge.allianz.com)

Climate change could devastate Philippines: NASA scientist

2008-09-15T10:52:00.000+05:30

MANILA (AFP) — Climate change could have a devastating impact on the Philippines, leading to widespread destruction of the country's flora and fauna and flooding the capital Manila, a NASA scientist warned here Friday.
The continued melting of Arctic ice caps, brought on by climate change, could cause sea levels to rise by seven metres (23 feet), said National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) physicist Josefino Comiso.
He said the country's fish stocks would be depleted and many species of plant and animal life would die because of the change in ocean temperatures caused by climate change.
Comiso said the slow melting of the ice caps should be more than "just an item of curiosity" for Filipinos.
"The Philippines is a country that is among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change," Comiso said.
"Slight changes in ocean temperature will lead to coral bleaching which will impact on the coral reefs on which the country's fishes feed."
Fish species are already starting to disappear from Philippine waters as delicate coral reefs, some of the biggest in the world, are destroyed in the archipelago, according to the international marine watchdog group Reef Check.
In a report last year the group said coral reefs were already suffering from severe bleaching.
Only five percent of the world's reefs -- which shelter and provide food for a vast number of marine species -- are still in pristine condition, according to Reef Check.
Comiso said the melting of the polar ice caps meant the sun's rays were no longer being reflected, but instead going into the Arctic waters and warming them up.
"Currents from the Arctic waters travel around the world to all the other oceans, including the waters surrounding the Philippines.
"Such warming would encourage the growth of algae in the world's oceans, which would gravely affect the world's food chain," he said.
He also noted that rising temperatures could reach a point where "various living creatures" would start to die in large numbers.
"Such temperatures would vary from species to species," he said.
"But the deaths of these creatures would gravely affect the food supply chain."
Comiso, a senior research scientist at a NASA centre that monitors the effects of global warming, made the warning after attending a conference of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration.
He said he was working on a project, to be funded by the Manila government weather station, to monitor the effects of global warming in the Philippines.
The project, which will be based in a state university outside Manila, will coordinate its research with NASA.
Comiso was part of the United States Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore.

Progress in achieving UN anti-poverty goals for 2015 under threat, new report finds

2008-09-12T14:25:00.001+05:30

By: UN Department of Public Information
NITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, 11 September - The world has made strong and sustained progress in reducing extreme poverty, the United Nations reports today, but this is now being undercut by higher prices, particularly of food and oil, and the global economic slowdown.Since 2002, rising prices for minerals and agricultural raw materials have contributed to the remarkable run of economic growth in all developing regions, according to the UN's Millennium Development Goals Report 2008. However, many developing countries are now facing higher import bills for food and fuel, jeopardizing their growth.Improved estimates of poverty from the World Bank show that the number of poor in the developing world is larger than previously thought, at 1.4 billion people. But the new estimates confirm that between 1990 and 2005, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen - from 1.8 to 1.4 billion - and that the 1990 global poverty rate is likely to be halved by 2015. However, these aggregates mask large disparities among regions. Most of the decline occurred in Eastern Asia, particularly China. Other regions have seen much smaller decreases in the poverty rate and only modest falls in the number of poor. In sub-Saharan Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States, the number of poor increased between 1990 and 2005.In a reversal of this previous global downward trend, the prevailing higher food prices are expected to push many people into poverty, the report says, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia, already the regions with the largest numbers of people living in extreme poverty."The largely benign development environment that has prevailed since the early years of this decade, and that has contributed to the successes to date, is now threatened," Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon declares in the foreword to the report. "The economic slowdown will diminish the incomes of the poor; the food crisis will raise the number of hungry people in the world and push millions more into poverty; climate change will have a disproportionate impact on the poor," the Secretary-General said. "The need to address these concerns, pressing as they are, must not be allowed to detract from our long-term efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. On the contrary, our strategy must be to keep the focus on the MDGs as we confront these new challenges."Action on the UN agendaGiven the nexus between poverty, climate change, food and fuel costs, these issues will be taken up as a group as the General Assembly re-convenes at the UN this month.Secretary-General Ban has called for a special high-level event to boost global action to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, on 25 September. Nearly 100 Heads of State and Government are expected to participate, as well as many leaders from the private sector, foundations and civil society organizations. They are expected to announce a number of new initiatives and broaden coalitions to address health, poverty, food and climate change issues, at the meeting itself or during its many side events. The incoming President of the General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, has cited action on the food crisis as a major theme for the new session that kicks off on 16 September. On 22 September, the Assembly holds a high-level meeting on the development needs of Africa, a region facing severe challenges in terms of climate change, agriculture and poverty reduction.Progress and challengesFirst agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, the MDGs set worldwide objectives for reducing extreme poverty and deprivation, empowering women and ensuring environmental sustainability by 2015. The Millennium Development Goals Report, now in its fourth year, assembles statistics from 25 UN and international agencies, and is produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). "Looking ahead to 2015 and beyond, there is no question that we can achieve the overarching goal: we can put an end to poverty," Secretary-General Ban states in the foreword to the report. "But it requires an unswerving, collective, long-term effort." Among the MDG gains noted in the report released today:Â· Primary school enrolment has reached 90 per cent, and is in striking distance of the 2015 goal of 100 per cent, in all but two out of 10 regions of the world.Â· Within primary schools, gender parity (share of girls' enrolment as compared to boys') is at 95 per cent in six out of 10 regions.Â· Deaths from measles have been cut in one third between 2000 and 2006, and the vaccination rate among developing world children has reached 80 per cent.Â· More than one and a half billion people have gained access to clean drinking water since 1990 - but due to stress on freshwater resources nearly three billion people now live in regions facing water scarcity. Â· With help from the private sector, mobile phone technology and access to essential medicines are spreading in the poorest countries.Â· Thanks in part to debt write-offs from international lenders, spending on social services in developing countries is up: the share of developing countries' export earnings spent on external debt servicing fell from 12.5 per cent in 2000 to 6.6 per cent in 2006, freeing up resources that can be devoted to meeting the health and educational needs of the poor.But many of the eight Millennium Development Goals and linked targets are in danger of going unmet by the deadline year of 2015 without redoubled efforts in developing countries, a sustained favourable international environment for development and increased donor support. Among the remaining challenges: Â· More than half a million mothers in developing countries die in childbirth or from pregnancy complications every year.Â· About one quarter of developing world children are undernourished.Â· Almost half of the developing world population still lack improved sanitation facilities.Â· More than one third of the growing urban population in the developing world are living in slums.Â· Almost two thirds of employed women in developing countries hold vulnerable jobs as self-employed or unpaid family workers.Achieving the Goals is feasible, the report says, but it will require a greater financial commitment, including delivery by the developed countries of the increased foreign aid that they have promised in the past few years. For more information, please see www.un.org/millenniumgoals.

Asia poverty level down, child health poor - U.N. report

2008-09-12T14:23:00.000+05:30

By Melanie Lee
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Asia is making progress in reducing extreme poverty but faces an uphill battle to improve child nutrition and lower child mortality rates, the United Nations said on Thursday.
The U.N.'s annual Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) report, released on Thursday in New Delhi, showed East Asia and Southeast Asia making the most progress in reducing poverty levels, although South Asia lagged behind.
In South Asia, progress was slow in India, with the number of people living in extreme poverty rising by 20 million between 1990 and 2005, the report said. But it did manage to lower its poverty levels to 41 percent from 52 percent in the same period, officials said.
The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living with less than $1.25 a day and poverty as living on less than $2 a day.
The MDGs are eight social and economic development benchmarks set by the world body for nations to accomplish by 2015. They include reducing poverty levels, increasing universal education and fighting the spread of AIDS.
India is not on track to meet half its MDGs by 2015, experts presenting the report said. More political will is required to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, improve maternal health and combat diseases.
"Policies are not the issues, there are very many good policies, it's all about the implementation," Maxine Olson, the U.N. resident coordinator, said in New Delhi during the launch.
Olson said India also needed to bring down child mortality rates.
In 2006, 2.1 million children under five years of age died in India, the biggest number after China.
India is the world's second most populous nation and UNICEF said global efforts to improve child survival would fail unless it did better.
In East Asia and Southeast Asia, the number of people living under the extreme poverty line dropped to 18 percent in 2005 from 56 percent in 1990.
Overall, child malnutrition remained high in Asia, especially in South Asia, home to half of the world's underweight children. East Asia, by contrast, faired better, with only seven percent of all children malnourished in 2005.
Child malnutrition accounts for more than one third of all deaths of children under five, the report said.
(Reuters)

UN chief unveils report on flagging world fight against poverty

2008-09-12T14:16:00.000+05:30

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday unveiled a report warning that poverty reduction goals agreed by world leaders eight years ago may not be met by the 2015 target date, particularly in Africa. The UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Report 2008 was released ahead of a summit meeting on the MDGs, scheduled for September 25 on the margins of the UN General Assembly session. It noted that improved data from the World Bank confirmed that between 1990 and 2005, the number of people living in extreme poverty dropped from 1.8 to 1.4 billion and that the 1990 global poverty rate was likely to be halved by 2015. "But while most of this decline occurred in East Asia, particularly China, other regions had much smaller decreases in the poverty rate and only modest falls in the number of poor," it said. "Sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet republics actually saw the number of poor increase between 1990 and 2005." The September 25 gathering, which will be held three days after a high-level meeting here focused on Africa's development, will be the first summit on the MDGs since 2000. Ban told a press conference that 150 countries, including more than 90 heads of state or government, would be represented at the two gatherings which he said were aimed at really working "more for the poorest of the poor, the bottom billion trapped in poverty." Turning to the MDGs, the UN secretary general told a press conference that "despite the challenges, there are enough successes to prove that most of the poor are reachable in most countries." "We must really galvanize political will and mobilize necessary resources," he added. "I expect all participants (at the upcoming meetings) to announce specific initiatives or commitments and lay out plans to realize them." In 2000, world leaders gathered at a UN summit here agreed on eight development goals to be implemented by all countries by 2015, including halving the number of people living below the poverty line - now set at $ 1.25 a day - between 1990 and 2015. Other MDGs focus on achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, ensuring environmental sustainability and creating global partnerships for development. (Economics Times)

Asian poverty fell to 18pc, UN report F.P. Report

2008-09-12T14:14:00.000+05:30

ISLAMABAD: The percentage of people living below the newly redefined poverty line of $1.25 a day in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia fell from 56 per cent in 1990 to 18 per cent only fifteen years later, according to a United Nations progress report released Thursday. These two regions have already met the Millennium Development Goals target of reducing 1990 levels of extreme poverty by half. Progress in reducing extreme poverty was slower in Southern Asia, where the pace will need to accelerate for the region to be able to meet the target. In India, for example, poverty decreased from 52 to 41 per cent between 1990 and 2005. Because of population growth, however, the number of people living in extreme poverty rose by 20 million during this period. Poverty reduction will not be achieved without full and productive employment and decent work for all. But in Southern Asia, 83 per cent of employed women and 73 per cent of employed men are classified as “vulnerable” – working as self-employed or unpaid family workers. As the Millennium Development Goals Report 2008 noted, even in South-Eastern and Eastern Asia almost two-thirds of women and over half of men hold insecure jobs.Strikingly, although progress was made in reducing extreme poverty, child malnutrition –a key indicator of hunger and poverty – remains remarkably high in many parts of Asia, the report finds. Southern Asia has a larger proportion of underweight children than any other developing region – with 46 per cent of children under five severely or moderately underweight in 2006, down from 54 per cent in 1990. Child malnutrition also remains high in South-Eastern Asia, at 25 per cent. The exception is represented by Eastern Asia, which managed to bring malnutrition levels down to 7 per cent in 2005 – the second best performance among all developing regions, after Northern Africa. Success in primary education: A different picture emerges from looking at access to primary education. Progress was remarkable in Southern Asia. The region reached 90 per cent enrolment in 2006, up from only 72 per cent in 1991. And as part of its success in raising total primary enrolment, Southern Asia has made the most progress among all regions in gender parity – from 77 girls per 100 boys enrolled in 1991 to 95 girls per 100 boys enrolled in 2006. Similarly, over the same period, the ratio of girls to boys improved in secondary education from 60 to 85. The pattern for primary education in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia is different, the report notes. Here, there were already very high levels of enrolment in the 1990s, but recent progress has been patchy. Rates have actually deteriorated recently in Eastern Asia, and an initial decrease over the 1990s was followed by only a marginal upsurge in South-Eastern Asia. Progress was also uneven with regard to gender equality. Southern Asia emerges as the sub-region where the percentage issued by the UN Department of Public Information of paid jobs held by women is the lowest among all developing regions, only 19 per cent in 2006. But Eastern Asia is rapidly moving towards parity, reaching a 2006 rate of 41 per cent. In South-Eastern Asia, the situation has remained static, although starting from a relatively high level.In terms of political decision-making, the report found that Southern Asian women made wide gains, with their proportion of parliamentary seats almost doubling between 2000 and 2008 (from 6.7 to 12.9 per cent) and in South-Eastern Asia, women’s participation rose from 9.7 to 17.4. In Eastern Asia, on the other hand, there has been no progress, and the percentage of seats held by women has actually dropped slightly since 1990. Poor record on reproductive health: Southern Asia has the poorest performance among all developing regions in providing adequate reproductive health services to women, the report found. Although there has been progress since 1990, this is the region with the lowest percentage of births attended by health personnel (only 40 per cent in 2006) and the lowest proportion of women attended during pregnancy (65 per cent in 2005). Poor attention to women’s reproductive health is reflected in the high number of maternal deaths, and its ranking as second only to sub-Saharan Africa in high maternal mortality ratios. Despite some progress, child mortality remains unacceptably high in Southern Asia. Greater gains were recorded in South-Eastern Asia. The number of child deaths per 1000 live births in 2006 was less than half its level in 1990, putting the region on track to meet the target of reducing child mortality by two-thirds by 2015. The Asian region also has a poor environmental record. Economic growth brought a rapid increase in carbon dioxide emissions in Eastern Asia, from 2.9 billion metric tons in 1990 to 6.1 billion in 2005. Eastern Asia now has the largest CO2 emissions among all regions of the world, and the largest emissions per unit of gross domestic product. Over the same period, emissions doubled in Southern Asia – from 1 to 2 billion metric tons – and tripled in South-Eastern Asia, from 0.4 to 1.2 billion metric tons. In addition, Southern Asia and South-Eastern Asia hold the second and third lowest proportion of environmentally protected land and marine areas among all regions. In adopting the Millennium Declaration in the year 2000, the international community pledged to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.” The MDGs encapsulate the development aspirations of the world as a whole. But they are not only development objectives; they encompass universally accepted human values and rights such as freedom from hunger, the right to basic education, the right to health and a responsibility to future generations. (The Frontier Post)

India far from poverty goals: Report

2008-09-12T14:12:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI: The United Nations Development Programme’s Millennium Development Goal (MDG) report for 2008 is a cocktail of contradictions.
Poverty levels in India, it says, have gone down from 52% to 41% from 1990 to 2005. But population growth coupled with runaway inflation has led to a huge increase in the number of people living in extreme poverty in the country — 20 million —during the 15-year-period.
Moreover, the report adds, the overall economic slowdown and increased food and oil prices are expected to further push more people into absolute poverty.
It was at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 when 189 world leaders made a historic promise to end poverty by 2015 and agreed to achieve the eight MDGs - reduce poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child and maternal mortality, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure access to water and sanitation and provide access to affordable and essential drugs.
Seven years to go for the deadline, India’s chances of achieving these goals appear quite bleak with about 46 million malnourished children and huge gaps in literacy and employment among men and women.
While on one side increasing enrolment in primary classes has been substantial due to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the lack of water and sanitation for girls and high drop-out rate at the secondary level remains an area of concern, the report states. Another prime area for worry is the high infant and maternal mortality rates (MMR).
“Going by the current trend it is unlikely India will achieve its target of reducing MMR unless all states make substantial progress like Kerala and Tamil Nadu,” said Maxine Olson, resident co-ordinator of UNDP in India. With regard to combating malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDs, though access to anti-retroviral therapy is increasing for the latter, much remains to be done.
Releasing the report, Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee said India has made sustained progress but much has to be achieved.
The UN will hold a meeting in New York later this year where all country heads are expected to reveal plans to meet the MDGs. Prime minister Manmohan Singh is expected to attend the event.p_vineeta@dnaindia.net

Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) Report 2008

2008-09-12T09:07:00.000+05:30

Today, the United Nations issued the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) Report 2008, summarizing progress towards the MDGs. Some of the highlights of the report include:
*Deaths from measles fell from over 750,000 in 2000 to less than250,000 in 2006, and about 80% of children in developing countries nowreceive a measles vaccine;
*Malaria prevention is expanding with increases in the use ofinsecticide-treated bed nets among children under five in sub-SaharanAfrica and 16 out of 20 countries at least tripling use since 2000;
*Some 1.6 billion people have gained access to safe drinkingwater since 1990.
In 2008, at the midpoint to achieving the MDGs by 2015, we'vemade unprecedented accomplishments. Yet, many challenges remain. At this critical time, we must all redouble our efforts to ensure theMDGs are achieved. Together, our generation can end extreme poverty,hunger and preventable disease.

Millennium Promisehttp://www.millenniumpromise.org/site/R?i=0JKppX2pJbcFhik7-pfs-w..

Ethiopia Facing World's 'Most Urgent' Food Crisis

2008-09-11T14:59:00.001+05:30

Nicholas Benequista, OneWorld US
ADDIS ABABA, Sep 3 (OneWorld) - The most pressing food crisis in the world at present is in Ethiopia, according to John Holmes, the United Nations' under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.
Holmes is on a three-day visit to Ethiopia to witness the efforts by the Ethiopian government, UN agencies, and international aid organizations to attend to the needs of more than 10 million people facing food shortages in the Horn of Africa country.
"In terms of the urgency of the food crisis and in terms of the immediate risk of children dying, I don't think there's another crisis like this one," Holmes said during a flight to the southern epicenter of Ethiopia’s crisis.
Ethiopian farmers and livestock herders are being hit with both a drought and skyrocketing food prices; in some areas, food prices have quintupled in just a year. At the same time, the global spike in food and fuel prices has hampered relief efforts by cutting the purchasing power of the World Food Program in half. With scarce resources to attend to the emergency in Ethiopia, families rescued from hunger often fall back into crisis.
On the first day of his trip to Ethiopia, Holmes visited a feeding center where dozens of women waited to have their children weighed -- a chance for free life-saving rations of a nutrient rich peanut paste, but only for those sick enough. Many return week after week. In all, the United Nations estimates that 75,000 children are at risk of starving to death in Ethiopia.
Though Ethiopia has posted double-digit economic growth over the last five years, most of its farmers remain dependant on rainfall. The country's pastoralists, who migrate with their animals to find verdant pasture, are also at the mercy of weather. In some parts of the country, three consecutive rainy seasons have failed.
"There are these problems arising all over the world. Donors' pockets are not bottomless."- John HolmesEarlier in the day, one farmer, standing in a field of stunted maize, told Holmes he had planted seeds four times this year in hope of rain. Each time, the rains never came.
Until they do, international donors will have to provide support, said Holmes. Yet Ethiopia is still asking countries like the United States and United Kingdom for an extra $140 million, and that figure is likely to rise this month when the government releases revised estimates of its humanitarian needs.
"One of the problems is that there are these problems arising all over the world," Holmes said. "Donors' pockets are not bottomless and therefore the resources are more limited than they would be in other circumstances."
The global rise in food prices may force more than 100 million people back into extreme poverty worldwide, according to reports by the World Bank and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Food Security

2008-09-11T14:50:00.003+05:30

Ten million hunger-related deaths every year, half of them children, testify to our failure to achieve global food security. Over 850 million people remain trapped in the spiral of hardship that hunger imposes, a figure which continues to rise even amidst the riches of the 21st century. The recent escalation of world food prices has transformed food insecurity from a difficult development problem into an emergency. Having recently mobilised vast financial resources to rescue the discredited international banking sector, rich country governments are now under pressure to achieve similar coordination in dealing with a crisis which hits hardest at the poor.

Millennium Development Goals and Hunger
Food security is the condition in which everyone has access to sufficient and affordable food; it can relate to a single household or to the global population. The first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) falls short of food security aspirations in seeking only to reduce by half the proportion of the world’s population experiencing hunger. Furthermore, governments signing the Millennium Declaration were overriding a commitment made just 4 years earlier at the World Food Summit of 1996 which applied the same target to the number of people. Rising population figures mean that 170 million fewer will be targeted by the MDG programme than would otherwise have been the case.
The first of two benchmarks for measuring progress is the “minimum dietary energy requirement” for each person as stipulated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This naturally varies by age and sex so that a weighted average is calculated for each country based on its population profile; typically this average is just below 2,000 kilocalories per day. Despite the promises of the MDGs, over 50 million people have been added to the 800 million falling below this benchmark in 2000. Malnutrition impairs the ability to learn or to work and reduces resistance to disease, these problems increasing in severity with the shortfall from the minimum dietary requirement. Hunger is therefore a cause as well as a consequence of poverty. Children’s health and cognitive development is especially sensitive, to the extent that the majority of child mortality is attributed to malnutrition. The second MDG indicator is therefore the proportion of children under age 5 who are underweight in relation to their age. This figure has reduced only from 32% to 27% in the period 1990-2006. Unicef says that 51 countries are unlikely to reach this MDG target by 2015. Moreover, these progress assessments predate the explosion in world food prices that has rocked global development agencies in 2008. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has warned that “high food prices threaten to undo the gains achieved so far in fighting hunger and malnutrition”.

Climate Change and Food Security

As recently as 2006, progress reports on malnutrition published by UN agencies made no reference to climate change. Yet it was no surprise when, in preparation for the Bali Climate Change Conference in 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) painted an almost cataclysmic picture for Africa in which “for even small temperature increases of 1-2 degrees….. yields for rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50% by 2020”. In addition, the predicted increase in drought and floods will aggravate what is already a serious short term cause of food insecurity. In South and East Asia climate change threatens to upset the stable monsoon pattern around which rice production in particular has evolved. The UN supports the 50 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in preparation of National Adaptation Programmes of Actions (NAPAs) and the Bali Conference launched an Adaptation Fund which may in time support these programmes. Recognising that funding is likely to be scarce, NAPAs limit their scope to community-based low-cost options for dealing with climate variability. Adaptation of agriculture will include the use of alternative seed varieties, improved soil management, maintenance of water management systems and reforestation. These NAPA reports convey universal concern for the sensitivity of food security to a less predictable climate and for the very limited capacity of poor communities to respond. Seed scientists acknowledge the extreme difficulty of climate adaptation even where research funding is available.

Biofuels and Food Security
Under pressure to take action on climate change in the run up to the Bali Conference, politicians resorted to knee-jerk policymaking, seduced by the claims of the biofuel industry. Petrol additives such as ethanol and biodiesel are manufactured from plant crops as a means of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and cutting carbon dioxide emissions. Apparently oblivious to the mathematics that one tank of ethanol for a Sports Utility Vehicle consumes corn that could feed a man for a year, the EU announced that these biofuels will contribute 10% of transport fuels by 2020 whilst the US plans to quadruple output in that period. Quite apart from the flawed assumption that these products create a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the use of land and food crops to cater for rich motorists at a time of global food insecurity has provoked outrage amongst groups campaigning for poverty reduction. Oxfam predicts that biofuel targets could create 600 million additional hungry people by 2025. In 2008, one third of the US maize crop will be diverted to biofuel production, showering corn farmers with subsidies of far greater value than US food aid. As these realities sink in, there are initial signs of back-pedalling on biofuel targets and subsidies amongst EU and US officials.

The Right to Food Promotion of biofuels has been cited as a breach of the right to sufficient food enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international treaty commitments. The UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, has urged the UN to respond to the food crisis as a human rights emergency and called for a freeze on new investment in converting food into fuel. In contrast to the half-speed MDG vision, a human rights approach to food security places immediate and inclusive obligations on governments to create capacity for their people to feed themselves. Ideally the right to food should take its place in national laws or constitutions, with guarantees of non-discriminatory and non-political strategies. Many of the world’s food security problems stem from the absence of an overriding goal to honour the right to food. A set of world trade rules might look very different if governed by such an objective rather than the focus on absolute volumes of trade.
Causes of Food Insecurity
The aftermath of the Second World War saw strategies which did indeed award priority to food security. The European Common Agricultural Policy and the US Farm Bill combined subsidies and tariffs to support the pattern of small family farms which were dominant at that time. These policies proved successful, generating colossal internal food surpluses. Not surprisingly, the poorer countries of the modern world are keen to copy this successful protectionist model, not least because of their similar profile of agriculture - there are 500 million farms of less than 2 hectares in developing countries. Such ambitions remain unfulfilled largely because in 1995 the richer countries were successful in their efforts to include agriculture in the system of open market rules governed by the World Trade Organisation, whilst simultaneously refusing to unravel their own protectionist model. Attempts by developing countries to build their agriculture sectors have been undermined, both in domestic markets undercut by cheap imports from rich countries and in exports which encounter trade barriers erected in Europe and US. Countries in Africa and South Asia are also to blame for their prolonged lack of investment in rural economies which account for about 75% of world hunger. For example, African governments are yet to meet their 2003 Maputo Declaration commitment which called for 10% of national budgets to be dedicated to agriculture by 2008. Rural economies have therefore failed to grow. Poor farmers, often holding uncertain land tenure and lacking capital, plant for a mix of subsistence and surplus for market, a model chronically vulnerable to fluctuating prices or unfavourable weather. The majority of developing countries have food deficits, a serious problem for those lacking foreign currency to purchase expensive imports.
Whilst overall population growth creates pressure on food security, it is a relatively minor factor. Since 1961 world production of food has trebled whilst the population has doubled. Feeding more than half of the world’s grain production to animals is the more significant indicator. As 7kg of grain is required to produce 1kg of beef, there is an argument that meat production on this scale impedes the goal of global food security. Another human weakness - for violent conflict - invariably leads to extreme food insecurity. The 2007 Global Hunger Index reports that “almost all” of its worst ranking countries have been involved in violent conflict in the last decade. Collapsed economies such as North Korea and Zimbabwe also generate food crises. (Oneworlduk)

Solution to food crisis must address inequalities – UN human rights chief

2008-09-11T14:45:00.000+05:30

A wide-ranging approach addressing inequalities and the rights of marginalized groups is essential in tackling the current global food crisis, the top United Nations human rights official said in Geneva today.
While it is crucial to respond with humanitarian support in the short term, a medium- and longer-term plan must centre on human rights, High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour told a special session on the food crisis at the Human Rights Council.
“Such focus helps to analyze and confront the differing impact of the crisis on people,” she noted. “It contributes to clarify the imbalances in a society that trigger or exacerbate the food crisis.”
Mr. Arbour added that a rights-based approach will also take into account the voices of marginalized groups, along with human rights institutions, civil society organizations and others.
Such a solution could also help to defuse tensions and prevent civil unrest, as well as avert violations of civil and political rights in response to protests.
The current food emergency, she observed, was triggered by the confluence of several factors, including imbalances in supply and demand, unfair trade practices and distorted incentives and subsidies.
“Yet at its core and in its punitive effects, this crisis boils down to a lack of access to adequate food,” the High Commissioner told the Council at the start of the day-long event, adding that this access is a right protected by international law.
Not only must the impact of the crisis on marginalized people must be studied, but the root causes of such discrimination – such as exclusion from access to land, productive resources and decent work – must be eliminated, she said.
If such comprehensive action is not taken, a “domino effect” which affects other rights, including the right to health or to education, could result, Ms. Arbour cautioned.
She emphasized the key role of States, which by human rights law must resolve such situations. “States’ obligations regarding the right to food and freedom from hunger also entail the adoption of national strategies to ensure food and nutrition security for all.”
The current crisis “transcends national boundaries,” the High Commissioner said, calling for cooperation among States in addressing the problem.
In his address to the Council, Olivier De Schutter, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, underscored how the crisis should not be viewed as one that is solely humanitarian or macro-economic in nature, but as one that is focused on the right to food.
“What distinguishes a natural disaster from a violation from human rights is that, in the latter situation, we are capable of moving along the chain of causation, from the situation of the malnourished of the hungry to specific acts or abstentions by duty-holders,” he said.
It is up to individual countries to outline their plans regarding the right to food, the independent expert said. “At the same time, the international community must ensure that an enabling environment is created, allowing such national strategies to flourish, and providing financial and technical assistance where needed.”
The independent expert also called for stepped-up efforts to assist the agriculture sector in developing nations, in the face of soaring input prices.
“We must feed the hungry now, but we must also prevent famines from occurring tomorrow,” he pointed out.
The Council later adopted a resolution by consensus expressing its grave concern at the worsening global crisis.
It called on States – both individually and though cooperation and assistance – and others to make every effort to ensure the realization of the right to food as an essential human rights objective.
In a related development, poor countries relying on food imports are expected to spend 40 per cent more on food this year than they did last year, according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
According to the latest Food Outlook, this year’s food import bill for the Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDSs) is forecast to reach $169 billion this year.
FAO characterized this as a “worrying development,” noting that by the end of this year imports could cost four times as much as they did in 2000.
“Food is no longer the cheap commodity that it once was,” said the agency’s Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem, stressing that soaring food prices will likely exacerbate the food deprivation suffered by 854 million people. “We are facing the risk that the number of hungry will increase by many more millions of people.”
Although the global production outlook is favourable, this is unlikely to translate into the decline of many agriculture commodities because of the need to replenish stocks and rising utilization.
FAO predicts record cereal production this year, but tight markets will result in continued price volatility. (UN News Centre)

Skyrocketing prices continue to threaten the right to food, UN expert says

2008-09-11T14:38:00.000+05:30

10 September 2008 – The global food crisis caused by soaring prices is jeopardizing the right to food, and any potential solution to the problem must be viewed through the lens of human rights, an independent United Nations expert said today.
Presenting his latest report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Olivier De Schutter, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said that international assistance and cooperation are key to achieving that right under international human rights law.
Speculation in the futures market of primary agricultural commodities is one of the factors responsible for driving up the cost of food, he said.
The expert pointed out the role of agrofuel production in food price volatility. But discussions of whether production of the fuels should be halted or promoted in the best interests of farmers should be guided by the consideration of human rights, he added.
Mr. De Schutter stressed that the Council must ensure that acting in the interests of tackling climate change does not impede food protection and protecting human rights.
To date, with the exception of Brazil, production of biofuels has not proven to be a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, given the use of fertile land, water and energy necessary. Mr. De Schutter called on the 47-member Council to quickly adopt global agreements and guidelines to scrutinize agrofuel production.
Although the surge in food prices caught people around the world off guard, the poor are hungry because they cannot afford to eat, not because of a lack of food, he said.
In a related development, three UN agencies are scheduled to brief a special meeting of the Development Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels today on the current food crisis.
Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and Kanayo F. Nwanze, Vice-President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), told participants how they are jointly responding to surging food prices.
The WFP has already announced a package of more than $200 million to help ease hunger in 16 hotspots.
“With poor farmers unable to feed their own families, we are in the danger zone,” Ms. Sheeran said, calling for “extraordinary action” to address the threat of unrest due to lower food stocks.
FAO is helping boost food production in 78 countries, providing seeds, fertilizer, animal feed and other farming tools, in addition to the nearly $1 billion it spends on field activities.
IFAD, meanwhile, has provided some $200 million in loans and grants to help farmers in the developing world, and continues to call for longer-term investment to allow the almost half a billion planters in these nations to increase their incomes and resilience against price fluctuations. (UN News Center)

CBPM: What's the solution to global food crisis?#links

2008-09-11T14:33:00.000+05:30

CBPM: What's the solution to global food crisis?#links

What's the solution to global food crisis?

2008-09-11T14:28:00.000+05:30

By Subir Gokarn
Monetary policy actions are relatively easy to specify when the growth rate and the inflation rate are both moving in the same direction. If, with reference to a "neutral" or "comfort" zone for the two indicators, implying a sustainable balance between the two, both are to move up, this constitutes overheating and the unexceptionable response by the central bank is to increase interest rates, reduce liquidity or do both. If, relative to the same reference zone, both are to move down, the appropriate response would be just the opposite -- enhance liquidity, decrease interest rates or do both.
It is when both these indicators move in opposite directions from the reference zone that complications arise. Obviously, a situation in which the inflation rate declines while growth accelerates will not be perceived as a problem warranting any kind of monetary policy response. But let's turn to the contrary situation, in which inflation is accelerating while the growth rate declines. This is what India -- for that matter, the rest of the world -- appears to be in at the moment. What should a central bank do? Address inflation and risk growth slowing down even more? Or, try and sustain growth but risk unleashing inflationary forces that might prove to be extremely difficult to rein in later on?
The choice depends entirely on the context. However, some general principles that should guide the choice can be laid down. Two principles provide a foundation for deciding on an appropriate response. First, the response should be based on the significance of the risks to the two indicators. If the risk that inflation will accelerate in the absence of appropriate monetary actions outweighs the risk that growth will decelerate if those actions are taken, they should be taken.
Second, the response should be sensitive to the probability of success. If potentially anti-inflationary measures are highly likely to reduce the growth rate while not very likely to have an impact on the inflation rate, they should not be implemented. Conversely, if potentially pro-growth measures are highly likely to exacerbate inflation while not having a very significant impact on growth, they should be resisted.
Let's now consider the three choices that confront the Reserve Bank of India -- tighten liquidity, ease liquidity or hold steady -- with reference to these principles. Tightening liquidity is being both recommended and widely anticipated as the likely outcome in the next policy announcement. In terms of the first principle, relative risks, while the risk that growth will decelerate even more is very much there, inaction by the central bank now could cause inflation to accelerate, requiring a much more heavy-handed response in the not too distant future. Gradual, calibrated steps are far more palatable.
However, on the second principle, the probability of success, the evidence appears to go against tightening for the moment. The dominant contributors to the recent inflationary surge are food items and minerals, especially iron ore. Both these categories are being significantly driven by global demand-supply mismatches, something which domestic monetary policy actions will not have much of an influence over. As far as minerals and metals are concerned, the global slowdown may have a favourable impact on prices in the coming weeks; more importantly, slower growth in China will almost certainly contribute to softening prices over the next year or so. In other words, if a tight monetary policy cannot have much impact on circumstances that are, in any case, likely to be transitory in nature, why do it when it will almost certainly exacerbate the growth slowdown?
Turning to the second option, easing liquidity, at this point, it is widely believed to be impossible. However, it is worth examining the case for and against, particularly because it would have been seen as a legitimate course of action had the inflation numbers been less intimidating. With reference to the principle of relative risks, the growth slowdown is real and, more importantly, the sectoral pattern is closely related to the interest rate cycle.
On the other hand, it could stimulate domestic demand pressure prices, reinforcing the global forces that are already so malignant. In terms of the principle of probability of success, the issue is essentially one of timing. Going by our understanding of response lags, an easy liquidity stance will probably have a quicker impact on inflation, through its influence on expectations, than it will have on growth.
So, if tightening liquidity does not convincingly satisfy the tests of appropriateness while easing liquidity somewhat more convincingly fails them, at least for the moment, the status quo emerges as a default option. However, this is not entirely satisfactory. If there is a concrete case for the holding course, even as the clamour to tighten liquidity, it must be brought into the discussion.
In terms of the principle of relative risks, non-intervention will very likely allow the growth deceleration to consolidate and widen across sectors through linkages and multipliers.
This will, in turn, ease pressure on prices of various products and services, offsetting the global inflationary forces to some extent. On top of this, if at least some of the commodity price patterns are transitory, as suggested above, the inflationary pattern should become more tolerable in a few months. With reference to the principle of probability of success, the eventual objective is to stabilise the economy in the zone around 8.5 per cent growth and 4.5 per cent inflation. Given this, if the current inflation surge is transitory, a status quo policy today provides a little more room to manoeuvre in the next couple of quarters as far as the growth slowdown is concerned.
The critical question, therefore, is whether the recent inflationary pattern is more likely to be transitory or persistent. With respect to minerals and their downstream products, global business conditions will eventually dictate prices. However, energy and food prices are being driven by factors other than purely cyclical. There are some important linkages between them, notably through the diversion of food crops to bio-fuels and the rising prices of fertilisers, which are contributing to lower yields globally. The point, however, is that if these are structural problems with long-term implications, how much impact can a short-term policy instrument, which is essentially what monetary policy is, have?
This leads us to a third guiding principle, perhaps the most important, appropriateness: understand the cause of the problem and make sure that the policy instrument being contemplated can deal with that cause. Unfortunately, the roots of the global food situation lie far beyond the scope of interest rates and cash reserves.
The writer is Chief Economist, Standard & Poor's Asia-Pacific. The views are personal.
(Business standard)

Somalia: Food Security Alert 10 Sep 2008 - Decreasing humanitarian access exacerbates already extreme food insecurity

2008-09-11T14:22:00.000+05:30

Conflict and civil insecurity continue to escalate in Somalia, and increased attacks against humanitarian workers in the last three months have hampered response activities at a time of sharply increased needs. In the southern and central regions, where about 78 percent of the 3.25 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance are located, militia groups have targeted aid workers, severely limiting the size and scope of humanitarian services provided. Urban and rural households in these areas have already exhausted most coping mechanisms to respond to the current crisis, the result of below–normal April–June rains, crop failure, high food and fuel prices, and continued unrest. As a result, the country is facing an extreme humanitarian crisis, and indications are that the situation will continue to deteriorate with increasing rapidity through the end of 2008, and into 2009. Urgent food and non–food assistance is needed to respond to the crisis. Increased attacks targeting humanitarians and general civil insecurity have made it difficult for aid organizations to respond to the country's increasing needs. As of July 2008, at least 23 aid workers had been killed, 18 abducted, and countless others injured, including staff from the United Nations and World Food Program.

Violence is worst in and around Mogadishu, through which 80 percent of humanitarian supplies for the country pass. Piracy along Somalia's coastline has also led to delays in commercial and food aid shipments, as cargo ship operators fear the loss of their vessels and lives following hijackings over the past two years. As a result of the increased violence, various organizations have scaled back the number and/or size of their activities, or have pulled out of the country altogether. For example, Doctors Without Borders this month ceased operations at one of its clinics in Mogadishu due to increased threats to its staff.
While the ability of aid agencies and international donors to respond to the humanitarian crisis has been limited, the severity of the crisis continues to increase in severity. In southern and central regions, an estimated 180,000 children are acutely malnourished – of which 26,000 are severely malnourished – marking an 11 percent increase from January 2008. In addition, new areas of the country are now facing high levels of food insecurity, including key pastoral regions of the north (Sool, Nugaal, and Togdheer) (Figure 1). While usually low and stable compared to the rest of the country, nutrition indicators are now also deteriorating in these areas. In the meantime, local and imported food prices have increased by 700 percent in the last year, leading to increased urban and rural vulnerability, and new waves of population movement towards refugee camps in neighboring countries. While secondary rains are expected in mid–October, they will not alleviate the severity of the current crisis. Access to food, shelter, income, water, and basic services remains severely limited, and food and non–food assistance is needed until at least the end of the year. Stabilizing the security situation is a priority to ensure such needs are met. (reliefweb)

Looking for dry ground and a better life: Bihar Flood drives migration in India

2008-09-08T17:25:00.000+05:30

Source: World Vision - Asia Pacific
By Kitkupar Shangpliang, World Vision India
Website: http://www.wvasiapacific.org

Born 20 days before floods ravaged the eastern Indian state of Bihar, baby Sabrun is already an object of migration and so also, are thousands of others trying to escape poverty and the floods. Her family travelled 20 kilometers on foot for two hours to reach the nearest relief camp in Madhepura district.
Sabrun's father is a *rickshaw puller, landless and earning a mere Rs.40 a day, equivalent to a dollar. "I don't want to leave my village", said this worried father. But he may not have a choice. Without job and food security back home, families such as this may be forced to move elsewhere in this migration prone zone.
Even in times when there is no flood, migration is a grave concern in this poverty stricken state of India. New-Delhi bound trains are always packed with migrant laborers from the villages of rural Bihar. And when they reach the towns and cities - they end up as daily laborers who are forced to live a tougher life in the city.
"All the trains were running fully packed and railway stations were overcrowded, indicating that people were migrating on a mass scale", said a government official from the Additional Disaster Management Cell. Official sources in the three districts said, that thousands of people, mostly poor landless labourers, were migrating by train as far as Mumbai and other major cities in southern India.
World Vision Relief staff of the first assessment team, J.L Franco observed, "People are rushing to board any vehicle - from bicycles, rickshaws, carts and trains - to escape to safer places".
For now, baby Sabrun and her family are taking shelter in a relief camp run by the DL College Authorities and assisted by World Vision. They are getting three square meals a day, they have a class room-turned dormitory for shelter but they are running short of clothing. Somehow, the situation is under control but for how long? As the families go back to their village or decide to detour - real agony will begin.
There will be no crops left, land owners and farmers will not be able to offer jobs in the fields for the next six months and women who typically cut the crops in exchange for a share of food , will be left hungry and without work. "Then people will be forced to send their children as young as ten or eleven to work in the towns as domestic help or in tea shops", said Kaushal Kishore, Secretary of DL College governing body.
Kishore has been instrumental in setting up the relief camp and allowed the usage of space at his college in the midst of opposition from his other colleagues. "We have used this college campus as the camp during the flood in 1984, but that flood is nothing compared to this one", said this soft spoken but determined middle aged man.
Kishore and his other active colleagues, at their capacity, have done their best to educate people not to fall into the force or temptation of migration. While migration looks like the better option, people face dire consequences when they leave their village and live in foreign lands, "Some of them cannot come home even if they want to, because they have nothing back home", Kishore said.
The solution: Proper housing for the poor
Digging deeper into the matter, Kishore's colleague Divender explained: The State's Housing Scheme is not working here as it should. Before the government would channel housing money through the village committee, which monitors how people use the money for housing. Now that money goes straight to the family. Most of the families then end up spending the money repaying debts or spending it on a marriage celebration. Had people used the money for building concrete homes, they could have minimized their loss during this flood.
"As you can see, all homes are thatch-made, so the water destroyed everything. If concrete homes had been built, the structures would have survived, lessening the chance for migration because families would have had their houses even after they have lost everything else", said Divender. The Bihar context is not something any one can understand easily. The State and NGOs are attempting to do their best but the gaps are huge and the problem big.
History of Migration
Historically, people left Bihar due to the loss of land, recurrent famines, and land infertility. Now they leave because of flooding. There were about 195 million migrants in India according to the 1981 census, and a large portion of that number comes from Bihar migrants.
In the past, most migration was short-distance, from one rural district to another, female-dominated, or for marriage reasons. When rural-to-urban migration trends increased, it was primarily within one's own district, male-dominated, and employment driven. The last ten years have seen a completely different pattern: people of both sexes are now going away to other states and cities across the country to find work.
Human Trafficking another possible consequence:
The issue of people being trafficked, especially children, is of great concern in this disastrous situation. Bihar stands at the helm of India's human trafficking zone. Economic poverty, food insecurity and now flooding will push more people from rural to urban areas, complicating the already complex Indian urban problem.
Civil society and media reports indicate that a large number of cases like this explained how girls and women are being promised a better job in the cities but finally end up as daily laborers, domestic help and even forced to prostitution.
Could this flood add to the human trafficking problem that already exists in east India? Village leader Murli Yadav fears, "In the past only men or women left their homes, today the entire family is moving along".
*rickshaw: two wheeler cart pulled by one personaidnews

'Administration has to be more sensitive'

2008-09-08T14:04:00.000+05:30

We hope to see better results in retrofitting schools, VC Menon, member, National Disaster Management Authority, tells SREELATHA MENON.

Did the floods in the Kosi river take the authorities by surprise? For no one had any clue they were coming. There were no boats for days. What authority does the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has in such a situation?We have all the powers required to face any disaster. The NDMA was formed under the National Disaster Management Act of 2005 and is headed by the prime minister. Former Army chief Gen NC Vij (retd) is the authority’s vice-chairman and all its eight members are experts in fields related to disaster management.
Why was everyone clueless about the condition of the Kosi embankment? Is the security of millions in the hands of a lone engineer in Biratnagar whose faxes no one reads in New Delhi, Patna or Kathmandu, as media reports have been revealed?The embankment is in another country which was in turmoil for some time. So that has to be taken into account.
So people kept quiet because it was diplomatic to do so?I can’t comment on that.
How does the NDMA work with other arms of the government?There is a National Crisis Management Committee, headed by the Cabinet secretary, with all Union secretaries as members. It is like a committee of secretaries and it meets daily and takes decisions. It looks at all the crises that are beyond the capacity of the state governments to handle. The executive committee of the NDMA is headed by the home secretary and the secretary of the NDMA is a member of this committee.
Why is it that in Bihar, for days together there were insufficient boats to ferry people out of danger?We have 2,600 boats there now and 11 helicopters. We are getting these from various agencies. There are 18 teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) with 733 people dealing with the rescue operations. These are people trained to deal with floods and are part of the eight battalion force of the NDRF (of roughly 10,000 men).
Was there a shortage of choppers? Can you summon private aircraft to deal with large-scale evacuation?We can take over any hospital or private establishment in such a situation. But in Bihar, the only airstrip nearby was in Purnea. It is not possible to have more choppers there. Having more boats was also not safe as we would not have been able to control the safety of the people. There are already stories of private boatmen looting people in distress. We have to be very cautious. We are dealing with 34,28,000 people in 1,914 villages. We have boats which can carry 10 people as well as those which can carry 20-30. Even operating these boats has been a challenge because they have been hitting railway tracks as water is eight feet deep all over.
What about the government in Bihar? The state has been facing floods every year. Why was it not able to mobilise sufficient supplies and rescue people for days together in districts like Araria?Look at their website and you will find that each district has the power to procure boats for floods. We are there to facilitate this. Bihar has had worse floods. In the 1987 floods, 28.6 million people were affected and in the 2004 floods, 220 million people were affected. So far 3.4 million have been affected and we have evacuated over 600,000. We are running 285 camps with 25,000 people each. Do you know what it costs to run a camp of that size? It is not easy given the fact that the entire area is under water.
Some government officials are dismissive of these efforts even now. They say Bihar has three kinds of crops: Kharif, rabi and relief. What do you say?It is true that people there are used to relief and disaster. It is a way of life in Bihar. All that can be said is that the local administration has to learn to be more sensitive.
How is it that a fortnight after the floods, industry was nowhere in the picture? Doesn’t the NDMA have any link with industry?We have a corporate task force with the CII, the Ficci, major companies as well as an NGO taskforce with 20 organisations. We have given them a list of things needed and they are supplying them. For instance, every day, one lakh steel sheets are being sent from steel factories, including that of Tata Steel, which has its own relief department. We let companies take credit for this. We are just links. NGOs like World Vision, Caritas, Oxfam and Vani are among the 20 organisations which are in the NGO taskforce. They are adopting camps.
You were a part of the UN relief operation for tsunami and it was counted as one of the best. Can that be replicated ?Of course . That is why the NDMA was formed with professional expertise. Our mission is zero tolerance to avoidable deaths. We are creating early warning systems and rescue systems.
You have been periodically issuing guidelines on flood management and quake resistance. What is the compliance?We have issued guidelines on management of floods, earthquakes, and now on biological disaster. Our national executive committee, headed by the home secretary, monitors their implementation. Our guidelines on earthquakes mooted that all home loans should have a component on quake-proofing houses. It is already in place for zone 4 and zone 5 houses. For the rest, the emphasis is on strengthening the lifeline structures like schools and hospitals. Do you know 33,000 children died in China’s schools in the recent earthquake and many of the 88,000 victims of the Muzaffarabad quake died in classrooms. We have to prevent that here.
Are we expecting any disaster now?Yes, a devastating earthquake near Uttarakhand. It can happen anytime.
How many schools have we retrofitted?Just one in Delhi and we will do eight more, besides one each in a district of Zone 4 and 5.
You have retrofitted just one school in four years. Doesn’t that reflect poorly on the NDMA?We are launching a school safety project this year and we hope to see better results in retrofitting schools. (Business Standard)

World Vision commits Rs. 8 Crore for Bihar flood survivors

2008-09-08T14:02:00.000+05:30

Chennai, Sept 4 (ANI/Business Wire India): World Vision India today committed Rs. eight crores to respond to the mounting challenges facing the survivors of Bihar floods. This will respond to the immediate relief, recovery and rehabilitation needs of 125,000 people (around 25,000 families) in the Madhepura district, one of the worst affected by the floods. Over the last three days around 10,000 people (2000 families) have been served with immediate food relief."Initially, we were looking at close to Rs.4 crores to reach the people on the ground with the most essential needs- cooked food, dry rations, family kits and shelter material," says Franklin Joseph, Director- Humanitarian Emergency Affairs, World Vision India, "but by looking at the number of the people in the camps and needs that would arise, we have added temporary shelter material, hygiene kits and water containers to the survival kits."World Vision is providing chuda (flat rice), sathu (lentil meal) and jaggery (country sugar), candles and match boxes as survival kits to people who are coming into the camps around the town of Saharsa, a neighbouring district. People in the camps are also being provided with cooked food for lunch and dinner. Reports say that the water is slowly starting to recede. But the challenges for the people who are in the camps are many. Two boys, Pappu, 14 and Deepak, 10 have been missing for a week now and their parents have started to lose hope. Their neighbors suspect that the raging waters have washed both of them away to the unknown, something the parents are not willing to accept. But witnesses said, they found no trace of the two boys. Several families are looking for members they have lost as they fled the waters.In one of the relief camps, ten-month old Priyansu with boils all over her body is sleeping on her mother's lap. As she hold her baby close, says her mother Rina, "She doesn't cry much and sleeps well at night and I breastfeed her." Finding medical help for this condition in the relief camp would be a challenge.The urgent needs are for health care, clean drinking water and protection for children. We are assessing the needs as quickly as possible so that we can put in place additional programmes to respond to the health needs of the people in the camps," says Franklin Joseph, adding that "Protection of children will be another major focus."World Vision has responded to every major disaster in India in the last few decades including the tsunami, Kashmir earthquake and the recent floods in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa and Assam. World Vision India is also member of the NGO steering committee of the National Disaster Management Authority.

42 kids die of malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh

2008-09-04T17:47:00.000+05:30

Thu-Sep 04, 2008

Bhopal / Indo-Asian News Service

People from 150 villages of Madhya Pradesh's Satna district, where malnutrition has led to 42 deaths in the last three months, have decided to boycott elections if the women and children continue to suffer for want of food.

Madhya Pradesh's drive - involving the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and the World Food Programme (WFP) - against malnutrition among children notwithstanding, 42 child deaths have occurred in the past three months in Satna district.

"It is symbolic of a deep-rooted problem afflicting over 80,000 underprivileged children in this state," child rights activists said.

"Children in Satna district villages are dying of malnutrition but the authorities are reluctant to accept the fact and say that the deaths have been caused by various diseases," Prashant Dubey of MP Right to Food campaign (MPRTFC) said.

The state has with the assistance of Unicef and the WFP unveiled several special schemes like the Bal Shakti Yojana, the Shaktimaan and the Bal Sanjeevani Abhiyan which seek to treat severely malnourished children. It includes medical services necessary for such kids.

Still, there are 33,000 malnourished children in Madhya Pradesh in the 0-5 years age group, according to National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data. That is about 60 per cent of the total child population in the state.

The recent deaths have come soon after the twelfth phase of the Bal Sanjivani Abhiyan (campaign to bring down level of malnutrition among children) - conducted by the state's Women and Child Development (WCD) Department across the state from May 15. The campaign was carried out in cooperation with Unicef.

"The government claims to have made efforts to curb malnutrition for which it has spent millions of rupees in the past three years. But one can make out the level of nourishment provided to children from the state of Anganwadis (government-run creches) in the district. They lack even basic facilities like seats, drinking water, separate toilets or space to cook," said Dubey.

"Anganwadis remain closed. Foodgrains are never available at fair price shops. How do we feed our children in such a case?" asked Bandelal Kol, a resident of one of the affected villages. He had come to the Majhgawan block headquarters of Satna district during a meeting called by the Adivasi Adhikar Manch.

Residents of 150 villages participated in the meeting which resolved to boycott the polls if the government fails to secure the health of their women and children.

Meanwhile, Director of Women and Child Welfare Department (WCD) Kalpana Shrivastava said, “The main problem is that whatever the state provides under schemes to curb malnutrition can only be supplementary nutrition, whether it is through ICDS (the Integrated Child Development Scheme) or mid-day meals. It is hard to tackle malnutrition if non-availability of food and livelihood is the problem.”

The state's budget for the development of women and children went up to Rs 5.9 billion in 2008. Of this, Rs 3 billion was earmarked for providing nutritious food to undernourished women and children. This was Rs 1.9 billion more than 2007.

"However, the per centage of underweight children in Madhya Pradesh increased from 54 in 1998-99 to 60.3 now and the per centage of wasted (extremely malnourished) children has gone up from 20 to 33, according to NFHS, despite Unicef involvement,” a WCD official said on condition of anonymity.

The NFHS report says that only 14 per cent children breastfeed within one hour of birth and 82.6 per cent of children between the six and 35 months (the most critical period of life for mental and physical development) are anaemic. (News X)

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