Complete Wellness

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 12 2009 (IPS) – Thousands of Asian women flock to the affluent sheikhdoms of the Middle East annually, seeking jobs as domestic workers. For many this quest for a livelihood comes to a humiliating end when they test positive for HIV.
The women learn about their HIV status when they go and get tested before their job contract is renewed, says Malu Marin, director of the Manila-based Action for Health Initiative, or Achieve , a member of a regional non-governmental organisation (NGO) network dealing with migration.

This test is mandatory and done every two years, but without any counselling services available, she added.

Once they are identified as having HIV, the employer is informed, and the women are placed in a holding centre in a hospital until their departure is processed, Marin said during a telephone interview from the Philippines capital. These holding centres are to restrict the movement of these vulnerable women.

They are not allowed to go out and they are deported with no chance of packing their belongings or even getting salaries due to them, she revealed. They can never go back to work in those countries.

The scale of the problem faced by these women from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Philippines was singled out in a report released this week by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Related IPS Articles

(The women) often leave for overseas work under unsafe conditions, live in very difficult circumstances, and are often targets of sexual exploitation and violence before they depart, during their transit and stay in host countries and on return to their countries of origin, states the report, HIV Vulnerabilities of Migrant Women: from Asia to the Arab States .

With little or no access to health services and social protections, these factors combine to make Asian women migrant workers highly vulnerable to HIV, it adds.

Migrant women often have limited or no access to justice and redress mechanisms, especially in Gulf countries, the report reveals, referring to places like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that were among those surveyed for the report.

If they are found HIV positive, they face deportation and back in their countries of origin they experience discrimination and social isolation in addition to the difficulty of finding alternative livelihoods, the report said.

Cases of HIV among domestic workers have been recorded in a number of migrant-sending countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, the report adds. As it is often the case in countries with low HIV prevalence, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, migrant workers represent a large percentage of those identified as living with HIV.

In fact, the U.N. report was prompted by concerns expressed by Pakistan during the annual assembly of the World Health Organsation s (WHO) member states in Geneva in 2007. The South Asian nation had been worried at the increasing number of its citizens labouring as migrant workers in the Arab region being forced back after having been infected by the virus.

During that assembly, Pakistan convened a meeting with other Asian countries to discuss the issue of migrant workers being deported from the Arab region because of HIV, Marta Vallejo, an editor of the UNDP-UNAIDS report, told IPS. It is a sensitive issue in the Arab states.

Concerns by the Asian countries that send the female migrant workers to the Middle East is understandable due to the substantial amounts of foreign exchange these women plough back to their home countries. Women migrants from the region generate substantial economic benefits to their countries of origin and their host countries, states the report.

Filipinos working in Arab countries sent back 2.17 billion US dollars in 2007 according to the report. Current remittances by migrant workers from Sri Lanka amount to three billion US dollars, it added.

As for impoverished Bangladesh, remittances sent home by its workers resident in the UAE alone reached 804.8 million dollars in the last fiscal year which ended in July, according to the Bangladesh Bank. That figure represents 7.4 percent of all remittances sent to Bangladesh in the last fiscal, which totalled almost six billion dollars.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are an estimated 9.5 million foreign workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, of which 7.5 million are from Asia. The GCC includes Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The flow from Indonesia is largely female; they are concentrated in Saudi Arabia, says Manolo Abella, chief technical adviser at the ILO s Asia-Pacific office. Migrant workers from Sri Lanka are 75 percent women, and from the Philippines, 85 percent are women.

What has made these female migrant workers so vulnerable in the Middle East is that domestic work is not covered by labour laws, Abella said in an interview. That means if you have complaints about non-payment of salaries or a violation of your labour rights you have no access to a formal procedure.

And even if there is some protection offered in the employment contract, female domestic workers have little access to mechanisms that protect their rights, since they are confined in a home, adds Abella. The domestic workers are completely beholden to their employees.

It is very very tough to actually to take the active role of a complainant, says Abella. There is very little the domestic workers can do when abused.

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 7 2009 (IPS) – When the United Nations concluded its International Year of Sanitation (IYS) last December, it left behind some 2.5 billion people worldwide waiting in line for toilets that did not exist or were in short supply.
The most positive outcome of IYS is that it raised the profile of sanitation and gave it more political prominence, says David Trouba of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) in Geneva.

In an interview with IPS, Trouba said: The IYS also highlighted the fact that sanitation work is changing from a government-led minor service provision sector to a huge market-driven human activity.

During IYS in 2008, he pointed out that governments allocated more funding to sanitation; parliaments made commitments to incorporate sanitation as a basic human right in national constitutions; and policies and action plans on sanitation were signed in many developing countries.

Doing sanitation right takes time, so you don t see progress automatically overnight, Trouba said.

It is difficult and hard work, combining social sciences, political, institutional and technical work. It is slow steady work, house by house and community by community.
Related IPS Articles

I feel, however, that the IYS acted as a springboard which in the end will accelerate progress on the ground for those 2.5 billion people without adequate sanitation, Trouba added.

The 2.5 billion people a figure that keeps popping up in endless U.N. studies on health care comprise about 38 percent of the world s population, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.

The worrying conclusion of a 2008 report of the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) authored by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the U.N. children s agency UNICEF is that at the current rate, the world will miss the sanitation target in the U.N. s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by more than 700 million people.

Of the countries not yet on track to meet the sanitation target but making rapid progress five are in sub-Saharan Africa: Benin, Cameroon, Comoros, Mali and Zambia, according to JMP.

If we are to reach the MDG target, we need to provide at least 173 million people per year with access to improved sanitation. And to do that, commitments must become the day-to-day reality of the sector, said Trouba.

Meanwhile, the Geneva-based Global Sanitation Fund (GSF), created in March 2008, is trying to boost progress on sanitation particularly towards MDGs and beyond.

The eight MDGs, which also include reduction of poverty and hunger by over 50 percent, have a target date of 2015.

But according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the MDGs are being undermined by the ongoing financial and food crisis.

Jon Lane, executive director of GSF, told IPS the Fund is just getting underway, so its difference-making contribution is probably a year or two down the road. Symbolically, it showed that there can be creative financing mechanisms in sanitation something which is necessary.

In operation, he said, the GSF will not embark on the construction of kilometres of sewerage pipes and other huge construction projects, since top-down investments in the sanitation sector don t reach the poorest people.

Instead, it will support programmes that have been developed through decision-making processes involving local communities, and will concentrate on hygiene education, raising awareness and creating demand.

The GSF has an aspiration to grow to around 100 million dollars per year large enough to make a difference on the ground for millions of people and also large enough to show what works, and thus attract more investment in sanitation, either through the GSF or other mechanisms, Lane added.

As part of several pilot projects, the GSF has provided assistance to at least seven countries: Burkina Faso, India, Madagascar, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, and Uganda.

But several other developing nations have also been knocking at the GSF door seeking assistance.

Asked about the major shortcomings in meeting the sanitation needs of developing nations, Trouba said that in the past, shortcomings have been many: lack of political will; the subject of sanitation does not have the appeal of its better-known cousin, water; insufficient funding; top-down, government-led, subsidy-driven programmes.

The sanitation sector is wide and complex. It involves many stakeholders and is marked by a major feature: the need for habit and awareness change at all levels, from households to donors to presidents, Trouba noted.

Supply-driven centralised policies are singing their last swan song. The winds of change for demand-creation and hygiene are blowing.

We know that sanitation is vital for human health, generates economic benefits, fosters social development, protects the environment and is doable, Trouba said. I think you will see more focus on sanitation and progress in the sector in the years to come, he predicted.

MEXICO CITY, May 12 2009 (IPS) – Scientists around the world are trying to decipher the influenza H1N1 virus in order to develop a vaccine, while others are tracking its origins to fight its spread more effectively.

Surgical masks have become part of the Mexican police uniform. Credit: Marcos Ferro Tarasiuk/IPS

Laboratory tests show that the virus strain initially believed to be swine-based is actually a subtype of influenza virus A that contains genetic material from swine, human and avian strains. It easily mutates and recombines, which is what makes it potentially so dangerous.

The microbiology laboratory at Canada s Public Health Agency took a step forward in announcing May 6 that it had decoded the genetic sequence of three samples of the H1N1 virus collected in that country and in Mexico.

This virus already existed. It has been mutating and will continue to mutate. My hypothesis is that we are faced with several subtypes of A/H1N1, pulmonologist Fernando Cano, former director of Mexico s National Institute of Respiratory Disease (INER), told Tierramérica.

There have been several documented cases of swine flu in humans, including a non-fatal contagion in 2007 that affected 12 people at a rural fair in the midwestern U.S. state of Ohio, said Cano, who is coordinator of the bioethics and clinical medicine faculty sponsored by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation).
Related IPS Articles

The people affected by that outbreak were tested and it was found that 60 percent had antibodies to fight that flu strain, added Cano, former director of the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) medical school. According to Cano, the Ohio virus is likely to be an ancestor of the current strain.

In a Tierramérica interview, Eduardo Sada, INER head of microbiology research, pointed to reports from 1957 and 1977 on swine flu in humans. Undoubtedly the original virus and the current one circulated at a low volume for several years until something that we haven t discovered yet triggered the epidemic, he said.

To assert that this H1N1 subtype originated in Mexico at this point is just speculation, agreed Cano and Sada. The virus has now been detected in more than 20 countries.

The first confirmed case of the new virus was in the small, impoverished community of La Gloria, in the southeastern Mexican state of Veracruz. From mid-March to early April, a rare outbreak of flu affected 600 people in the town, located some 10 kilometres from a pig farm.

Medical samples from the sick individuals in La Gloria were sent to laboratories in the United States and Canada. One of them, from a five-year-old boy who presented symptoms on Apr. 1, contained the new virus, said a report released on Apr. 23.

The same report, from Canada s National Microbiology Laboratory, in Winnipeg, confirmed that a woman who died of pneumonia on Apr. 13 in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, and who apparently had no contact with La Gloria, had also contracted the virus. But they weren t the only early cases. In the city of San Diego, California, near the Mexican border, a boy fell ill on Mar. 30 with an atypical respiratory illness. A similar case occurred shortly afterwards, involving a girl in the nearby town of Imperial.

The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the southeastern U.S. city of Atlanta, analysed samples from both cases and confirmed the presence of the new H1N1 virus.

In 1999, young people and pigs died of a strange virus in Malaysia. It was believed to be Japanese encephalitis , which is transmitted by mosquitoes that feed on both humans and pigs.

After several months of research and the slaughter of hundreds of pigs, the scientists discovered that the problem originated at a farm where some of the animals had eaten fruit remnants that had been contaminated by bats, which are asymptomatic carriers of the virus. Further, it was determined that transmission to humans occurred through pig saliva.

With that information, the authorities were able to stop the spread of the virus, which was dubbed Nipah, although they were not able to eradicate it.

Teams from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and researchers from several countries are trying to track down the origins of the new influenza, popularly known as swine flu . But they agree it will be difficult to determine where it originated.

Cano believes the deaths caused by the H1N1 virus, nearly all of which have occurred in Mexico, are related to delays in medical attention or inappropriate treatment, but does not rule out the possibility that the severe cases may have been caused by variants of this virus strain. In any case, the new virus is generally not very lethal, and that is fortunate, although it should not be forgotten that it could mutate and generate a severe pandemic in the future, he warned.

On Apr. 23, Mexico decreed a health emergency after confirming the presence of the new virus. On Apr. 24, the WHO also declared a public emergency. It then elevated its epidemiological alert from phase three to four, and later to five (out of six).

On May 4, Mexican authorities announced the stabilisation of the epidemic, calling for the gradual return to normal school and business activities, which had been largely paralysed since Apr. 23.

Every year, between 250,000 and 500,000 people around the globe die from the various strains of seasonal influenza that usually present during the colder times of year, says the WHO.

At first, the appearance of the H1N1 virus confused the scientific community, because the strain circulating mostly affected young adults. However, of the more than 1,000 cases confirmed in Mexico, nearly half were people 19 and younger.

Another issue to be clarified is why the people who died from the virus have nearly all been Mexican, and why some of the infected are able to recover without complications or pharmaceutical treatment, while others end up in the hospital.

For now, there are more questions than answers about the traits of the new virus, its origin and its mutation profile, after Canada confirmed that some pigs had contracted the virus from a sick farm worker.

Cano recommended that people continue to get vaccinations against seasonal flu, which even if it does not specifically target the new strain, does provide additional protection.

The H1N1 virus, which is spread in the same way as any other influenza virus, reacts well to antiviral medications if they are administered in a timely manner, though scientists fear new mutations could mean the pharmaceuticals will become less and less effective.

The first analysis by a multidisciplinary team from UNAM and the National Polytechnic Institute, set up to study the virus, confirmed that it has a great capacity to mutate, said microbiologist Antonio Lazcano, who considers it highly probable that there are different varieties of H1N1 circulating in Mexico alongside other flu viruses.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 15 2009 (IPS) – The global economic crisis, which has pushed millions more into extreme poverty, is threatening to have a devastating impact on the health of women and children.
A new study, released Monday, says the most elusive of the U.N. s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the ones relating to health: reducing child mortality (Goal 4), improving maternal health (Goal 5) and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (Goal 6).

If we balk now in our efforts to achieve the Health MDGs, we will put our present and future generations at risk, warns Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. But if we rise to the challenge, we can set the world on course for long-term prosperity and stability.

The study, published by the Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals on behalf of the Network of Global Leaders, focuses on the health of mothers and children, and highlights practical ways to reduce the continuing and unnecessary death toll in developing countries.

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), which is at the forefront of the U.N. campaign for the health MDGs, told IPS: We welcome this report s timely emphasis on the need to increase investments in women s health despite the current economic crisis.

She said that even before the crisis, the MDG5, to improve maternal health, was lagging the furthest behind.
Related IPS Articles

So we need to make greater progress, Obaid added.

Focusing largely on the world s poorer nations, the study calls for scaling up health services to the tune of 36-45 billion dollars by 2015, over and above the current spending (and cumulatively about 114-251 billion dollars from 2009 to 2015.)

The priority countries range from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin and Burkina Faso to Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

According to the report, the increased financing could become a reality through mechanisms such as solidarity levies on airline tickets, currency transfers and tobacco tax, along with frontloading investments and private sector donations.

It is hoped that the G8 meeting in July will further close the funding gap, the report says.

The summit meeting of the world s eight major industrial powers (G8) the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Canada is scheduled to take place Jul. 8-10 in L Aquila, a city in central Italy.

The study was released Monday at a luncheon ceremony hosted by Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, a country taking a lead role in the global campaign for the health MDGs.

The campaign itself was launched in New York in September 2007 by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

The Network of Global Leaders was formed at the invitation of Stoltenberg to provide political backing at the highest possible level.

The global leaders include President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of UK, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and President Lula da Silva of Brazil, among others.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Store said important progress has been made to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and childhood diseases.

However, efforts to reduce maternal and newborn deaths through the MDGs have so far failed miserably, he added.

To make significant strides towards the MDGs by 2015, we all need to invest more, work more closely together and secure systems that must deliver on our commitments, he said.

Among the steps proposed are: increased political mobilisation; adequate financing and effective delivery; streamlined and harmonised aid operations; free services for women and children at the point of use and the removal of access barriers; skilled and motivated health workers at the right place at the right time; and accountability for results with robust monitoring and evaluation.

Obaid told IPS that investing in the health and well-being of women and girls is the right strategy to generate economic growth and improve people s lives.

It is good for public health, it saves lives, and it is smart economics.

She said it is imperative for governments to increase health budgets and development assistance for health, especially sexual and reproductive health, if we want to promote economic recovery and growth.

Partners agree on an effective package of reproductive health services to save the lives of women, which includes voluntary family planning, skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetric care.

Providing voluntary family planning services is a cost-effective intervention that must be prioritised. Family planning alone can reduce maternal mortality by 25 to 40 percent and result in government savings in the long-run.

She said studies show that each dollar invested in contraceptive services will save up to four dollars in cost on maternal and newborn health and up to 31 dollars in social spending (housing, sanitation, education, etc.) and other expenses.

For each additional 10 million dollars received for family planning, we can avert 114,000 unintended pregnancies, 50,000 unplanned births, 48,000 abortions, 15,000 miscarriages and more than 3,000 infant deaths, Obaid said.

The eight MDGs include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a North-South global partnership for development.

A summit meeting of 189 world leaders in September 2000 pledged to meet all of these goals by the year 2015.

But their implementation has been undermined by the shortage of funds, cuts in development aid, and most recently, by the global economic crisis.

Sherazad Hamit

NEW YORK, Jul 8 2009 (IPS) – How is it that you can buy a 99-cent cheeseburger but not even a head of broccoli? wonders Michael Pollan, author and co-narrator of the new documentary Food, Inc. .

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm and his grass-fed herd. Credit: Food Inc.

Without question, since the rise of the fast food industry in the 1930s, the race to deliver food faster, fatter, bigger and cheaper has changed the food industry dramatically.

When McDonald s is the largest purchaser of ground beef, potatoes, pork, chicken, tomatoes, lettuce and apples, they change how [this food] is produced, says Eric Schlosser, author of the bestseller Fast Food Nation and co-narrator of the film.

This in turn impacts the price of certain foods. Instead of small local farms and a diverse range of products at the supermarket, there are a handful of companies and factories that process animals and crops to resemble foods we love.

It is in this context that director Robert Kenner and narrators Pollan and Schlosser seek to unveil the truth about Agrarian America , a pastoral fantasy spun by the U.S. food industry.

The explicit point of the film is that the multinational-dominated industry has evolved into a dangerous animal. It is heavily subsidised and protected by the government and yet is barely accountable to any public food safety or regulatory body.
Related IPS Articles

In fact, the industry itself is largely responsible for self-policing food safety and quality standards a Supreme Court-sanctioned freedom that has allowed it to control farmers, minimise oversight and feed the U.S. appetite while simultaneously incurring significant human and environmental costs costs hidden from the public by droves of corporate lawyers, the film argues.

In stepwise fashion, Schlosser and Pollan take us to the corn fields of middle America. We are told that in order to understand why foods like cheeseburgers are in fact cheaper than broccoli, we need to look at the impact of corn subsidisation and technology on the industry.

Subsidies make it possible for corn to be sold cheaply to multinationals which use it as feed for animals ill-equipped by evolution to properly digest it. In the case of cattle, the result is a mutated and virulent strain of bacteria E.coli 0157:H7 that when shed in manure, spreads from one animal to another.

High-tech industry, Pollan maintains, has compounded these circumstances. No longer is the food industry looking to better the conditions of feeding operations. It is looking for quick fixes.

When approximately 400 animals are slaughtered each hour, and one meat patty consists of meat from thousands of animals, the odds of contamination increase exponentially, says Pollan.

Kenner s inside footage of putrid chicken farms and ground beef being cleansed in ammonia packs a subversive punch. For those who dismiss the food debate as an issue dwelled on by the nutritionally and socially conscious, Kenner makes clear: anyone who eats three meals, whether you eat meat or not, is at risk.

It is this consistent reality check that causes even the most apathetic viewer to question the safety of our food and the existence of adequate laws.

To that effect, perhaps the most shocking revelation is the narrow scope of authority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one of the main food safety bodies. Described as toothless , the USDA is given the blunt end of the sword although perhaps even its critics are too kind.

Through the tireless work of featured food safety advocate Barbara Kowalcyk, we are made to understand the true extent of its impotence owed to the slew of officials ensconced in government regulatory bodies like the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and USDA who are now working to protect their former multinational employers.

While the notion of corporate cover-ups is unsettling, even more so is the responsibility of multinationals for a system of worker-slavery at food-processing factories. Through hidden-camera footage of factory working conditions and exchanges at border crossings, we are privy to part of the real human cost of producing food cheaply, an arrangement allegedly granted tacit approval by corporate higher-ups.

The remainder of that human cost is, of course incurred by consumers. Underscoring that fact is an encounter with a working-class family from Los Angeles struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table a family for whom the food debate is truly a luxury, a pre-occupation of the wealthy.

The family s two adolescent daughters are living proof a generational endemic obesity the biggest predictor of which is income-level. One in three U.S. citizens born after 2000 will have early onset diabetes. That figure jumps to one in two amongst minorities. These are staggering statistics even to those who strongly believe obesity is a crisis of personal responsibility.

We have now come full circle to the cheeseburger and the broccoli, and are reminded that there are more forces at work than one s ability to resist fast food. There is a systemic skew towards cheaper, nutritionally deficient foods in our supermarkets. It is at this point that we are cued to ponder over nutritional alternatives and a plan of action to change the status quo.

We are presented with organic . In an interesting us vs. them framework involving Stonyfield dairies and the Walmart super-store chain, respectively, we become proponents of the organic cause. The obvious downsides, namely price and availability, are immediately squared away and we are launched into a discussion on the profitability and sustainability of organic brands.

The conclusion is that organic brands can take down the giants if consumers leverage their purchasing powers.

It is an easy decision to support organic. If it is clear that the customer wants it, it is easy to get behind it, says Walmart executive Tony Arioso.

After much food for thought, the documentary closes with prescriptions ranging from buying produce in season and eating organic to changing school meals and writing to political representatives.

While good in intention, the list falls short of addressing the main problem of the working class: that of getting a head of broccoli on the dinner plate in an affordable way. In lacking this dimension it falls prey to the prevailing criticism it set out to defeat: that the food debate is open only to the better-off.

What is required is a list that includes more avenues for involvement at different economic levels and a marketing strategy that goes beyond limited release viewers. Overall, Food, Inc is as enjoyable as it is informative.

BALI, Aug 12 2009 (IPS) – The scant presence of mainstream media organisations at the 9th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) was a sad reflection of how the press was overlooking the big story on HIV/AIDS, say some journalists and development analysts at Asia s largest meeting on the pandemic.
If journalists are attending ICAAP this week, they are here not so much to contribute to discussions around media s awareness of the pandemic and their role in reporting on its sensitively and in a knowledgeable manner, but as mere reporters, these observers add.

The poor presence of mainstream media is a sign that the Fourth Estate is failing miserably in its role as a good source of information, says Trevor Cullen, head of journalism at Australia s Edith Cowan University.

The problem is that very few mainstream journalists are here at the conference. Up to 80 percent of people don t get their news from international journals or research reports; they get it from the media, Cowan said at a session on how the media are talking about HIV and AIDS.

The entire ICAAP, which has more than 100 sessions from Aug. 9-13, only has one session on the media – and just an oral abstract one at that. This is really not good enough, he rued.

It is unfortunate that we got a very small abstract session at this international conference of more than 3,000 people, because I see the need for the role of the media to be discussed more openly and debated upon, Cullen told the less than 30 listeners in the room, a number that dwindled to less than 20 much later.
Cullen, who has been involved in research on HIV/AIDS reporting for the last 12 years, criticised the lack of imagination, initiative and linkage of the mainstream media that is in the business of finding new angles .

We re very blinkered. We ve narrowcast instead of broadcast these issues. In Australia, for instance, you won t have any story on HIV/AIDS unless it s absolutely sensational, he added.

By the mid-1990s, or more than a decade after the earliest HIV cases were reported, HIV/AIDS had become just another health story , he pointed out.

Others had similar views about what the lack of interest in following HIV and AIDS closely either at the ICAAP or in general.

But Michael Tan, who is a columnist in the English-language daily ‘Philippine Daily Inquirer apart from being chair of the University of the Philippines anthropology department, also looked into the lens that media often wear when they report on the pandemic these days.

It used to be that the media training sessions needed to be heavily focused on the use of sensitive language on HIV and AIDS. But media s challenge now is look deeper into the social and other aspects related to the pandemic, as the disease also evolves.

We ve moved from the use of sensitive language. The journalists know how to be politically correct (these days), but the problem is they re still using the same old moralistic brains, he said, specifically referring to case of the Philippines.

It will take more then language to reframe their mindsets on gender and sexuality, Tan said at a press conference Tuesday.

Rosalia Sciortino, associate professor at Thailand s Mahidol University, lamented the small number of journalists at the Tuesday press conference after a plenary session around the social inequities that help fuel the spread of HIV.

ICAAP organisers had designed more discussions around themes outside the biomedical aspects in order to have more public awareness of the social contexts that deprive some of the most vulnerable groups of the help they need.

We wanted to focus on the power dynamics as well, Sciortino said. Already, she explained, media too often report on HIV as a health issue and put such articles only on the health page, when it is much more than a medical, scientific or health issue.

But going back to the basic journalism rule of putting the ‘5Ws and H in stories, Cullen added that media have omitted the why and the how when reporting on HIV and AIDS.

Unless the media are engaged in a meaningful way, then the same pattern will keep happening, said Imelda Salajan, media and public awareness consultant of the Jakarta-based advocacy group On Track Media.

Consistency in promoting the issue should be on top of the agenda. But as it is, communications is always given a very small place in the budgetary plan by donors. It can t be a one-time programme. The media should think of a long-term strategy and there are creative ways of doing it, she said.

Syed Qamar Abbas, deputy manager of the AIDS control programme of Pakistan s Sindh province, suggests the use of creative tools to reach public audiences. Innovative methods, such as tele-films, are effective in changing attitudes and lifestyles. In our research, we found out that programmes such as films made for television have 30 percent more impact than the traditional ways of presenting news or issues, he said.

For their part, proponents of community and cable radio report positive results in efforts at the grassroots level to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.

Nalamdana ( Are you well? in Tamil), is a non-government organisation that runs a popular cable radio programme at a government hospital in the southern Indian state. The show aims to raise awareness about and decrease the stigma of women undergoing anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in the hospital.

We have noted the positive response of women undergoing ART in a government hospital in Tamil Nadu, said Nalamdana project director R Jeevanandham.

We use cable radio to address depression among women and enable them to access special counselling. We also send messages via popular songs and dramas tackling key issues on HIV/AIDS, he pointed out, adding that counsellors are on hand to discuss the disease on-air.

But tackling HIV and AIDS even in alternative media spaces such as community radio is not always smooth sailing, due to the same cultural and religious factors that constrain public discussion and openness about the pandemic.

There are still many people especially in rural areas that have little or no knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Community members are still trapped in terms of morality and religion.

Thus, discussion about the issue doesn t really take off. And then, there are still doubts and fears of breaking cultural traditions and discussing taboo topics, said Dina Listiorini of the Atma Jaya University of Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

For a long time, the mass media have stuck to portraying HIV and AIDS as the 3H — Haiti, homosexuals, and heroin junkies, she said, citing previous studies.

But we have to use all different media to get the message across, said Cullen. Use all media, but try to go for quality. For this, you need to train people. We re just reporting the tip of the iceberg, only 20 percent of the story. We need to realise that HIV/AIDS is a massive story that affects all aspects of our lives.

*TerraViva at ICAAP 09 (http://www.ipsterraviva.asia)

Zofeen Ebrahim interviews NAFIS SADIK, special adviser to the U.N. Secretary General and special envoy for HIV and AIDS in Asia

BERLIN, Sep 10 2009 (IPS) – As secretary-general of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in September 1994, Nafis Sadik had described this groundbreaking event as a quantum leap in reinforcing commitments to addressing infant and maternal mortality, education and reproductive health and family planning.

Nafis Sadik (right) Credit: Global NGO Forum

The programme of action that came out of that historic global summit the Cairo Consensus that has today reached its 15th year had the potential to change the world , the former head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) had predicted at the time.

Sadik spoke to IPS on the sidelines of a Sep 2-4 forum here that took stock of progress in implementing the Cairo agenda, called Global Partners in Action: NGO Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Development Invest in Health, Rights and the Future .

She also talked about how sexual and reproductive health and rights has been undermined by extremism and militancy in her native Pakistan, and what can be done to breath new life into efforts to counter these.

IPS: In the Pakistani context, do you think extremism has been a death blow for sexual and reproductive health and rights?

NAFIS SADIK: I think the whole Taliban movement is very detrimental to the progress of the sexual and reproductive health and rights movement. They deny women and girls the right to education, which is fundamental. They are also opposed to family planning and sexual and reproductive health and rights and want women to be in bondage, not to be seen or heard. This is totally against Islamic concepts.
Related IPS Articles

IPS: What can the government do to address this extremist assault?

NS: Governments can do so much. To my mind, one way to counteract this onslaught is for all sections of society to form an alliance. Today, there is a movement against, what is known as Talibanisation. The non-governmental organisations, civil society and the corporate sector must forge forces with the government.

The way to go about it is to work at the community level. Firstly, because of insidious poverty, the people are compelled to send the children to madrasah (religious seminaries). We have to counteract this. We must find the source from where these madrasah are financed and stop this. At the same time, we need to improve our own school systems. We must get our primary schools in order.

Secondly, we need to find champions from within the local communities, both men and women who will talk about the real and right aspects of Islam. Our society is very traditional and people believe everything told to them. Some of the theologians are distorting religion. So we must concentrate on finding an intellectual group, in sufficient mass, countering that.

IPS: Where do we get such a learned, progressive mass of people?

NS: There are many movements now to educate men and women scholars that aim at enlightening them. It s not a question of getting them; it s about changing minds. That s the change in society that we need. I understand it can t be done overnight, and cannot certainly be done by governments. But I think civil society as a whole, and I don t mean just NGOs, can start to play an active role by which I mean boldly and courageously talking, speaking, speaking out against such atrocities.

IPS: You think there is political will for this?

NS: If they are scared enough, and it seems they (government) are now, then now is a good time. I think there will be some leaders emerging from all that is going on in Pakistan today.

IPS: Would it be prudent to use Islam as a way to get back at extremism?

NS: Yes, I think we also have to invoke religion because, in my opinion, we cannot take on religion. You can never win if you take on religion. We do not choose our religion and yet we defend it to death. We have the right to choose, but the right to choose religion is denied. I myself am a born Muslim and I defend Islam. It goes against my grain to give in that there are some things in Islam that I don t actually agree with.

IPS: Can women be prayer leaders? For if they can, perhaps they can begin to have a far more influencing role in society than their male counterparts?

NS: Islam allows women to be leaders. In our society, which is really quite backward-thinking, that s like a major shift in attitude, to ask women to lead. I think we should make incremental changes. I would take that on when the time is right. I wouldn t take it up as a first thing, as you might upset the whole movement to change.

IPS: Do you find that there has been any progress in Pakistan with regard to sexual and reproductive health and rights since the Cairo conference of 1994?

NS: I think that there has been a lot of progress in the world, not just in Pakistan. Women are much more knowledgeable. Many, without being empowered, try to empower themselves. There are many brave women in Pakistan.

IPS: What are your views about the recent passage of the domestic violence bill in the lower House?

NS: Now that s the starting point. I am very happy with changes and one can build on these changes and get voices from the community. The only problem is (that) in Pakistan, we all work in silos. These voices remain scattered . If only we could have them together. In that way, the success of the ICPD was that many different disciplines came together under the same umbrella.

IPS: Do you think the Millennium Development Goals have taken away the thunder from the ICPD?

NS: I don t think so. All the issues that we worked on at the ICPD have been incorporated in the MDGs. Every goal of the MDGs has come from the ICPD. The education for all, gender equality, maternal mortality reduction, infant mortality, all were in the ICPD. Five of the eight goals have come straight from the ICPD. The MDGs have caught the attention of all the world governments. This is something powerful and we need them.

IPS: But then the ICPD is now redundant?

NS: ICPD forms the underpinnings of the MDGs. These goals haven t come out of the air. These have come out based on a series of recommendations from conferences on development, population, environment. The one that was omitted on reproductive health for all has now been put back. It was omitted by certain governments, especially the United States. It s now back as a target and a very strong one.

IPS: You were one of the lead authors of the Cairo Consensus, which people here have termed a visionary document. Now on its 15th year, how do you see it?

NS: I think we have made a lot of progress because reproductive health is accepted everywhere. Sexual health is talked about but not necessarily accepted, but that in itself is a big change. And the linkage of sexual and reproductive health and rights to women s empowerment and gender equality is a very strong element and that has been totally accepted.

The fact that you can t have demographic goals from the top down without acknowledging individual choices, especially the choice for women, is a strong part of the ICPD and that is totally accepted in all societies. Coercive policies and top-down imposition of contraception have really gone now.

IPS: So there is reason to celebrate the ICPD at 15?

NS: Part reason to celebrate. I am disappointed that maternal mortality stays the same, that access to family planning is still not universal and those that need them don t necessarily have them.

I am disappointed that while laws have changed as far as women are concerned, the societal attitude and mindset is still slow (to follow). Nevertheless, I am optimistic and we have made progress. You know, issues like rape, incest were hidden, private matters but are now out in the open. I am encouraged that there are more young leaders now, much more involved in their own future and this brings hope.

IPS: So what can we do in next five years?

NS: Maybe we can join forces again. I think NGOs can be more powerful voices if they didn t work in silos. I think the underlying need is the empowerment of women that is a common theme.

Eli Clifton

WASHINGTON, Dec 7 2009 (IPS) – Attention over the past week has focused on United States President Barack Obama s decision to surge troop levels in Afghanistan to 30,000 and begin a drawdown in 18-months, but a new report calls attention to the failure of the Afghanistan government and international donors to protect women s rights.
The report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Sunday calls attention to the George W. Bush administration s citing of the defence of women s rights as one of the primary reasons for defeating the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Eight years after the fall of the Taliban, and the establishment of the [Hamid] Karzai government, Afghan women continue to be among the worst off in the world. Their situation is dismal in every area, including in health, education, employment, freedom from violence, equality before the law, and political participation, said the report.

HRW warns that women s rights have been largely overlooked by the Afghan government and international donors who have chosen to focus on the armed conflict against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

In March, the poor condition of women s rights in Afghanistan was brought into the news again by the parliament s passing of the Shia Personal Status law which Karzai went on to sign.

The law which Obama called abhorrent regulates the personal affairs of Shia Muslims and among other things: requires that wives seek their husbands permission before leaving home expect for in reasonable legal situations; gives child custody rights to fathers and grandfathers but not mothers or grandmothers; allows a husband to discontinue maintenance to his wife; requires that a woman make herself up or dress up when demanded by her husband; and not refuse sex when her husband demands it.
Related IPS Articles

The Shia law provided a timely reminder of how vulnerable Afghan women are to political deals and broken promises, said Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher at HRW. Karzai should begin his new presidency with a clear signal to women that his will be a government that wants to advance equality.

For many, at question is not just the Karzai government s failure to address women s rights but also the focus of resources by international donors and U.S. foreign aid to Afghanistan designed to strengthen civil society.

The interests of women are the interests of civil society. As soon as you dispense with things you think to be women s concerns you put health, sanitation and education on the back burner, Ann Jones author of Kabul in Winter and contributor to The Nation told IPS.

The thing the Americans do is end up building roads. If you talk to Afghans, roads are way down on the list of things they want. And if you talk to Afghan women you ll find roads aren t part of the things they need for their families, Jones went on to say.

HRW found that violence against women and attacks on women who participate in public life remain high.

The Apr. 12, 2009 murder of Sitara Achakzai a human rights defender and local councillor in Kandahar was an example of the danger facing women who participate in politics, human rights activism, teaching, health work or journalism.

No one has been prosecuted for her murder and HRW says that the killing of women who publicly participate in society scares off countless women from entering public life.

Police and judges see violence against women as legitimate, so they do not prosecute cases, Soraya Sobhrang of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission told HRW.

A 2008 survey of 4,700 women found that 87.2 percent had experienced at least one form of physical, sexual, or psychological violence, or forced marriage in their lifetimes and in the vast majority of cases women do not seek help because of their fear of police abuse, corruption, or retaliation by those who committed the violence.

Adding to the situation is the fact that rape is not a crime in the Afghan Penal Code and that rapists can only be charged with forced adultery, which can also result in women being prosecuted for adultery.

In addition to documenting the rampant violence against women, HRW points out that 57 percent of marriages which take place in Afghanistan are with girls under the age of 16 and 70 to 80 percent are forced marriages.

These marriages lead to girls dropping out of school and early childbearing, which results in a heightened chance of health complications during childbirth.

Curbing the dangerously high levels of violence against women and children and forced marriage has proven difficult because police receive little or no training in gender based violence or women s rights.

[T]raining has been increasingly focused on counter-insurgency and security skills rather than crime prevention, crime solving and community policing, said the report.

Little has been done to reverse cultural prejudices which lead to women facing discrimination and prejudice when dealing with the police or the courts.

Finally, despite significant efforts by international donors to improve education for girls, a disappointing 11 percent of secondary-school-age girls are enrolled in grades 7 to 9 and only four-percent are enrolled in grades 10 through 12.

The failure to educate girls warns HRW will often lead to child marriage, early childbearing, and the risk of dying during pregnancy.

HRW calls on Karzai s government and international donors to: promote the protection of women s rights as part of the reconstruction of Afghanistan; improve the Elimination of Violence Against Women law to bring it up to international standards; embark on a large-scale rape awareness campaign for law enforcement, judges, parliament, civil servants and the Afghan public; and make marriage registration more widely available and compulsory.

In addition: Karzai should order the release of, apology and compensation to all women charged with running away from home; the government and donors should strengthen training and Women and Family Response Units in the police to deal with gender based violence and increase the availability of girls secondary schools; the U.N. and government should prioritise the security of women candidates and voters for the 2010 parliamentary elections; and international donors and the U.N. with the Afghan Ministry of Women s Affairs should conduct a full gender audit of all spending in Afghanistan.

Women s rights advocates have also called attention to the inclusion of former warlords many of whom are known for violating human rights into the government.

We don t need to have so many mullahs and warlords who have attitudes towards women which are restrictive, President of The Feminist Majority Eleanor Smeal, told IPS. We would urge that [the government] appoint people from different parts of society who understand that women need to be empowered to make civil society function properly.

Lewis Mwanangombe

NDOLA, Zambia, Nov 23 2009 (IPS) – When Obed Mumba first came to the Zambian copper mining town of Ndola in search of work, it was still known reverently as Ku kalale the land of the white man. In the decades since, he has witnessed his Kabushi township outgrow the limited dreams of its planners.

Building a biodigester in Kabushi. Credit: Lewis Mwanangombe/IPS

Now 56, he is affectionately known in the Kariba section of the location as Ba Shikulu-Mumba , Grandpa Mumba. The neighbourhood was built in the 1940s specially to accommodate single men like Mumba, who came to Ndola from the northern region of Luapula to work in the Bwana Mkubwa Copper Mine.

Kariba comprised 130 housing blocks of six rooms each that were the envy of many native workers at the time. The changed fortunes of the town are felt keenly here, as the bright young men of today have quickly learned that it pays to follow revered sons of the city like Frederick Chiluba and Levy Mwanawasa (both former presidents of Zambia) to Lusaka, where fame and money are more readily found.

Hostels long outgrown

Established in the 1940s, Kariba section was built specially to accommodate people like Mumba who came to Ndola from Luapula as a single and eventually found work with Bwana Mkubwa (which means Big Boss).

This section comprised 130 swanky new housing blocks of six rooms that were the envy of many indigenous workers of the time.
Related IPS Articles

But in the years since the rules preventing miners families from living with them were cast aside, each room became living quarters for a family of five or more. Shacks, known locally as cabins , were thrown up to house teenaged sons and daughters and extended family members.

The original sanitation arrangements, eight communal ablution blocks, each designed to serve 100 people, were soon overwhelmed. By the early 1980s the communal showers and toilets were completely abandoned.

We had to dig shallow pit latrines near our houses and children who feared to fall into them began to defecate in the open. The whole place began to smell terrible with flies everywhere, Mumba, who today runs a small grocery store, recalls.

Among those who had left Ndola to make his career was Bernard Phiri. He had risen to become chief executive officer of the Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company, responsible for the town s water and sanitation, when in 2007 a non-governmental organisation from Germany established links with the Water and Sanitation Association of Zambia.

Appropriate technology

BORDA, the Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association, had been working on biogas projects in India since the late 1970s, and was interested in setting up a pilot project in Zambia.

Kabushi township was chosen for the pilot for a decentralised wastewater treatment system, intended as a waste and energy solution for a poor neighbourhood lacking sanitation. The system depends on bio-digesters to process human waste to give off methane gas.

A bio-digester is a reservoir typically round built out of burnt bricks and mortar or plain concrete with two vents fitted with valves. Through one vent, raw human waste flows in, which is hungrily fed on by bacteria, until out of the other flows an odorless, biodegraded slurry that can safely be used as manure in a vegetable garden.

Methane gas released by the bacteria collects at the top of the structure s convex roof, and is piped away to feed stoves in the nearby homes.

Five hundred forty-seven toilets were constructed by Kafubu in Kabushi. These are pour flush toilets with an integrated shower. The water supply is metered and the effluent from 156 households feeds the two biogas digesters that have already been constructed, Phiri explains.

Waste not, want not

Each household is expected to pay for the piped water used in the toilet, kitchen and shower billed at a rate of 59,200 Zambian kwacha just under $13 for 38 cubic metres of water.

Ba Shikulu-Mumba is one of the 30 grateful homeowners who has been connected to the gas network. He says it is much cheaper to cook on gas than on charcoal.

A bag of charcoal costs about 30,000 kwacha and if your wife is careless you can end up with a bill of more than 150,000 ZMK (just over $30) a month, he observed. A typical household in Kabushi gets by on roughly $100 each month.

As more digesters are built in the area, the plan is to connect all the houses as raw sewerage is expected to come in from more affluent neighbourhoods.

Sustainable development

The Kabushi project is the first integrated water treatment system in Zambia, and has already been copied by four of the country s ten other water utilities.

Bwalya Nondo, spokesperson for the ministry of environment and natural resources points out that the project s benefits extend beyond refurbished toilets and cheap fuel for residents. Harnessing renewable energy from human waste will also go a long way to protect Zambia s fast-disappearing forests.

At the moment charcoal burners destroy as much as 300,000 hectares of forest cover each year, Nondo said.

The two biodigesters, and the gas pipes and support structures built in Kariba section of Kabushi has cost Kafubu Water and Sewerage Company around $830,000. The biodigesters have put Kabushi and the city of Ndola on the road to a sustainable new order for their city.

Susan Anyangu-Amu

NAIROBI, Dec 21 2009 (IPS) – Kenya s new Anti-Counterfeit Act will be challenged on Mar 8 next year in the country s Constitutional Court on the basis that it violates the right to health. The petitioners, three people living with HIV, argue that the law confuses generic and fake medicine. This could cause a health crisis as generics constitute 90 percent of medicines used in Kenya.

James Kamau says wrong interpretations of the law by customs officials could cost many lives. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS

The three petitioners want the Constitutional Court to declare the law, which was enacted in the middle of this year, unconstitutional on the grounds that it will deny them access to affordable life-saving generic medicines and therefore rob them off their right to life, says Peter Munyi, an intellectual property rights lawyer working with Health Action International (HAI) Africa.

HAI Africa is part of a global network working to increase access to life-saving medicines.

The issue is of life-and-death importance as generics, which are between 70 and 90 percent cheaper than their brand-name counterparts, have enabled poor people in developing countries to get the necessary treatment.

International donors that fund drug distribution, including the U.S. President s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, also source from generics manufacturers.

James Kamau, co-ordinator of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement, an activist organisation advocating access to anti-retrovirals, has previously pointed out that the Anti-Counterfeiting Act of 2008 contains ambiguities which could lead to misinterpretation, undermining the government s efforts to ensure access to essential medicines for all Kenyans.
Related IPS Articles

Christa Cepuch, director of programmes at HAI Africa, adds that the act, which is aimed at cracking down on fake batteries, pens, drugs and cosmetics, contains a vague definition of counterfeiting which could be read to include generic drugs . She describes generic medicines as legitimate, effective and exact copies of brand-name products.

The law makes the manufacturing, importation or sale of counterfeit goods a criminal offence rather than a civil matter, which is the usual way in which disputes over intellectual property rights are resolved.

The onus to verify whether goods are fakes or not has been put on customs officials and police officers. We ll have Kenya Revenue Authority officials trying to figure out if drugs are fakes or not. This increases the risk of products being labelled fakes, Cepuch says.

The law further gives these officials excessive powers, making the process difficult and expensive. Moreover, the onus to prove the products are not fakes lies with the accused, a price many will not be willing to pay.

Activists such as Kamau argue that the existing Pharmacy and Poisons Board should be in charge of combating counterfeit medicines as it has the necessary technical expertise to deal with such issues which customs officials don t. The latter could imagine something is counterfeit and cost the lives of many.

The idea that essential medicines could be delayed for months at ports of entry is not far-fetched, based on what has happened in Europe where 22 seizures of perfectly legitimate generic drugs destined for developing countries have taken place in the recent past.

The risk is simply too high and will potentially keep away generics manufacturers and importers. This is also because the cost of the whole process, should the products be confused for counterfeits, will be too high, Munyi cautions.

The Kenyan law seems to be serving as a template for similar policies at regional level in East Africa and in neighbouring Uganda. Health advocates fear an anti-counterfeiting agenda is being pushed by actors who do not have the interests of poor people at heart.

Suspicion has also been raised by the speed at which the Kenyan bill was passed and acceded to.

Parliament was under immense pressure to pass bills that would change Kenya s political dispensation (after the election violence in 2008). However, they somehow found time to deal with this less urgent bill at the time. And no sooner had it been passed when the commencement notice was published by the minister despite earlier indications that there was no budget allocated to effect the bill, Munyi says.

He is referring to the minister for industrialisation publishing a notice in the government gazette on Jul 24, 2009 that backdated commencement of the legislation to Jul 7, 2009, a day before the suit was launched in the Constitutional Court.

We believe the government should combat counterfeiters and counterfeit goods, including medicines, some of which have been seized in the Kenyan market. However, this should not be done at the expense of the health of millions of Kenyans and their right of life, according to Cepuch.