Standing in the midst of a freshly planted maize field, Bright Osei Kwaku recalls that last year he more than doubled his output with the help of improved seeds, fertilizer and advice on farming techniques. Altogether, his two to three acres yielded about 15 100-kilogramme bags of maize, compared with just six bags the year before, when he had no such support.

Many other young Ghanaians have either left agriculture or dream of doing so. But Mr. Kwaku, now 25 years old, thinks he can stay on the land. "I will continue to farm," he told Africa Renewal. "I got income and food. I got enough from the farm."


With world food prices rising, it is a good time to push for higher production, argues Isaac Kankam-Boadu, the agriculture and environment facilitator of the Millennium Villages Project in Bonsaaso, a cluster of poor and remote settlements in Ghana's Ashanti Region. "The high food prices are an opportunity," he says. "The farmers can earn more money."

Last year, Mr. Kankam-Boadu reports, Bonsaaso's maize farmers managed to quadruple their yields from an average of about one tonne per hectare (two and a half acres) to four tonnes. Besides boosting their own incomes, the farmers contributed about a tenth of their crop to the area's new school feeding programme, which helps many of the area's children.

Millennium Villages

Such linkages are at the heart of the Millennium Villages Project. The first Millennium Village was launched in 2004 in Sauri, Kenya, as an integrated development initiative. Besides Ghana, the project soon expanded to also include villages in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. The sites were selected on the basis of their poverty indicators and to represent Africa's different ecological and climate zones. Altogether, more than 400,000 people now live in villages chosen for the project.

The idea grew from research and policy deliberations of the Millennium Task Force, directed by the UN Secretary-General's special adviser on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Jeffrey Sachs. The MDGs, adopted by world leaders in 2000, strive to drastically reduce poverty and deprivation around the world.

Expanding access to clean water is one of the goals of the Millennium Villages Project.

The Millennium Villages approach is based on two central ideas: The first is that simple and inexpensive changes in nutrition, health, water, sanitation, education, women's status, agriculture, communications, roads and electricity can lift rural Africans out of severe poverty. The second is that a combination of community mobilization, government support and external aid can fund these efforts for only about $110 per person per year. Most of the Millennium Village projects are being implemented by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Initial funders included the government of Japan, which gave more than $9 mn, and the US-based financier and philanthropist George Soros, who gave $5 mn. On 13 March, the Japanese government decided to extend its assistance by an additional $11.4 mn.

Japan's assistance to the project is part of that country's wider programme of support for Asia-Africa cooperation, known as the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). The fourth conference was held in Yokohama, Japan, on 28-30 May, and was attended by Ghanaian President John Kufuor and nearly 40 other African heads of state (see article). Near the top of TICAD's agenda was achievement of the MDGs, which is also central to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Africa's own blueprint for economic, social and political progress.

From school meals to cell phones

The Millennium initiative came to Bonsaaso in March 2006, initially in 10 localities. By the end of that year the project had expanded to 30 communities, covering some 400 square kilometres and affecting more than 30,000 people. The area was selected because many residents were very poor, malnutrition was common, there were few health services, many children did not go to school and numerous other indicators of human development lagged.

Rather than focusing on just one or two sectors, the project's designers want to show that poverty can be attacked across a wide front. If successful here and in other countries, says Sam Asare Afram, the Millennium Village manager in Bonsaaso, the project could provide a "model" for the continent.

Although the project is only two years old, communities in Bonsaaso are already enjoying real results. Rita Adjei, head nurse at the health clinic in Watreso, says that the new anti-mosquito bed nets mean that fewer children get malaria, although diarrhoea is still a serious problem caused by a lack of clean water and sanitation. She points to a bank of solar-powered chargers for cell phones, donated by Sony Ericsson. Once the Bonsaaso area comes under better cell phone coverage, Ms. Adjei and her assistant nurses will be able to quickly obtain better information and advice for their patients.

Nana Dapaah Siakwan, the traditional chief of Aboaboso, estimates that enrolment in the local primary school has increased from 200 to 500, largely thanks to the school feeding programme that began in March 2007. There also is a new health clinic. Until it opened, seriously ill patients had to be carried many kilometres along forest paths to a distant clinic-on a tabletop, since there was no stretcher, explains the chief. Now, he adds, "We have seen the benefits."

Mohammed Salifu, a cocoa farmer, produced nine 64-kilogramme bags in 2007, up from just four the year before, simply by following the advice of an agricultural extension officer sent to Bonsaaso by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. With new seedlings of a higher-yielding and faster-growing variety of cocoa, he hopes to do even better this year.

Bigger cocoa and food harvests will bring new challenges, however. The abysmal state of the roads within Bonsaaso and with other parts of Ghana makes it hard for farmers to get their crops to market. But Chinese road contractors hired by the government are busy at work, and the project has acquired two five-tonne trucks to help transport produce. Developing physical infrastructure is not one of the MDGs, notes Ernest Mensah, a project facilitator. "But if you want to eradicate poverty," he adds, "you need infrastructure."

Avoiding dependency

Critics of donor-aided development projects in Africa point out that they often tend to make the beneficiaries dependent on outside assistance, and frequently collapse if that money eventually dries up. The Millennium Villages Project does rely on significant inflows. On average, about 60 per cent of project financing comes from donors, 30 per cent from national and local governments and the rest from the communities themselves.

In part, the project is designed to convince donors to provide more financing over the long term, by demonstrating concretely that aid can be used effectively to reduce poverty. A careful tally is kept of every dollar spent in Bonsaaso and other Millennium Villages, not only to avoid waste and inefficiency, but also to demonstrate to donor governments that simple interventions can make a real impact. "They don't know how practical the solutions are," says Mr. Sachs, referring to donor agencies. "They don't realize that at very low cost - just a few dollars - you can save children's lives."

By showing that external aid can indeed be effective in Africa, Mr. Sachs and his colleagues hope to convince the major industrialized countries to live up to their commitments. The 2005 summit meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries, for example, pledged to provide Africa with about $50 bn in aid annually by 2010 - still about twice what donors are giving so far.

To help guard against local expectations that such outside assistance will continue to keep the Millennium Villages functioning, project planners stress that certain forms of aid will be steadily reduced and that governments and villagers will need to take up a greater share of the cost. The new higher-yielding cocoa seedlings provided to farmers are currently subsidized, notes Mr. Kankam-Boadu. But as farmers earn more from their cocoa sales, by next year the subsidies will begin declining, "to let them know the realities of the market."

Similarly, health care in Bonsaaso's new clinics is free for the time being, to encourage poor villagers to use their services. But, explains Mr. Afram, free care is not sustainable over the long term. Project workers therefore are helping villagers sign up for Ghana's national health insurance scheme.

In various ways, project organizers are encouraging national and local government bodies to expand their presence in Bonsaaso: by building roads, extending electricity connections and sending in more teachers, health care workers and agricultural extension advisers.

Building up community institutions and a spirit of self-help are also vital for long-term sustainability. Local residents regularly participate in the construction of new schools, teachers' quarters, clinics and community centres by providing labour and contributing sand, stones, timber and other construction materials.

The project employs several "facilitators" to help strengthen school management committees, parents' associations, water committees and other bodies, and to engage traditional chiefs, who play a major role in mobilizing people. Stephen Antwi, the project's community development coordinator, told Africa Renewal that community structures will help Bonsaaso keep developing even when outside aid eventually falls. "We'll likely have the capacity for many years."

The African Development Bank (AfDB), the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and the World Bank today called for an increase in funding and a renewed focus on agricultural water management in Africa, including irrigation, drainage and rainwater harvesting. Representatives of AfDB, NEPAD and the World Bank issued the call after a special session on agriculture water use in Africa held in Tunis at the First African Water Week. The meeting discussed challenges facing agriculture water development in Africa and a proposal for a new initiative aimed at scaling up investments and ensuring a more reliable, broad-based and sustained flow of funds for agricultural water, as well promoting analytical work and supporting sectoral strategies in the field of agricultural water. The Initiative would promote knowledge sharing, dissemination and capacity strengthening. It would launch innovative business lines in support of agricultural water management and sustainable development. It will also foster regional integration, coordination and partnerships, and empowerment of national and regional stakeholders.

According to the World Bank’s latest World Development Report, growth in the agricultural sector in Africa is vital to poverty reduction and to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “Strategic public and related private investment in water management will be essential for the intensification of agricultural production and for meeting targets for poverty alleviation, food production and economic recovery by 2015,”said Richard Mkandawire, NEPAD’s Agriculture Advisor. “Reliance on irregular and unreliable rainfall for agricultural production is a major constraint on crop productivity in the region,” Mkandawire added.

The Tunis meeting discussed the agricultural water strategy: Investment in agricultural water for poverty reduction and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa which was jointly prepared by the World Bank, AfDB, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and International Water Management Institute (IWMI), in response to NEPAD’s desire to implement land and water management (Pillar I) of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). The CAADP encompasses among other objectives an increase in the area under sustainable water management in Africa to 20 million hectares, up from less than 7 million hectares at present.

“Developing water resources and rural infrastructure are among the key priority areas of the African Development Bank in Africa. The ongoing agriculture portfolio of the Bank comprises 240 projects covering 28 countries with a total investment of US$3 billion. More than a third of the investment portfolio, ie US$1.37 billion, has been assigned to agriculture water development covering 53 projects and programs, and benefiting 23 African countries,” said Aly Abou-Sabaa, Director of the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department of the AfDB. “The initiative is timely in view of the rising food prices across the globe and the World Bank is committed to investing up to US$1 billion in sustainable agricultural water projects over the next 5 years”, said John Stein, Acting Director of the Sustainable Development Department, Africa Region, World Bank.

After a recent announcement that it will cut the amount of food aid it gives poor countries, the United States is likely to shift most of its focus to emergency needs, the American government agency responsible for humanitarian aid has hinted. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) told IRIN on 25 March that it was reviewing its food aid plans "to ensure our resources go to the highest priority needs." Last month, USAID announced that the cost of wheat and other food had gone up by 41 percent setting its budget back by US$121 million, which meant it would have to reduce the amount of food aid sent overseas.



Harry Edwards, a press officer for USAID said, "Commodity and ocean freights costs are increasing globally; as these two factors comprise the majority of food aid budgets, the price increases are reducing the tonnage of food aid available". Food prices have risen in part because of increased demand. But the cost of food aid has also been directly hit by freight charges, which have shot up because of rising oil prices. The price spike at the beginning of 2008 follows a 34 percent increase last year. The USAID annual budget for food aid, with supplemental appropriations, is about $1.5 billion. The food aid cuts will affect the agency's emergency operations in more than 40 countries across the world.



The US is the world's biggest food aid donor, contributing an average of six million tonnes of cereal annually since 1970. It funds half of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), which is responsible for 40 percent to 50 percent of global food aid. Besides emergency food, the US also provides monetised food aid, when food is bought at subsidised prices in the donor country and sold in the recipient country to generate funds for development projects. The US is one of very few countries that does this; most donors give food in kind or supply cash to UN agencies or NGOs for buying food on national or world markets. "The prospect of the food aid budget in the US going up is very dim - so it will have to make the donated dollar work more efficiently and prioritise," explained Christopher Barrett, who teaches development economics at Cornell University and edits the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.



Remove restrictions



"In cases where the US is the primary donor, it will have to relax its binding restriction, which does not allow food aid to be procured locally [in the recipient country] and regionally; improve timeliness of response and focus on emergency food aid." Almost all food aid donated by the USA is tied to domestic requirements for procurement, processing and shipping. "Freight costs form a major portion of the costs of food aid," said Barrett. According to him, it costs more than two dollars of US taxpayers' money to deliver one dollar's worth of food procured as in-kind food aid.



American legislation requires that 50 percent of commodities be processed and packed before shipment; and that 75 percent of food aid managed by USAID, and 50 percent of the food aid managed by the US Department of Agriculture, be transported in "flag-carrying" US-registered vessels. "The agency is looking for opportunities to reduce costs where possible," said Edwards. "It is seeking to reduce commodity costs by working with aid agencies implementing food aid programmes to use lower cost commodities and reduce transport costs by consolidating small orders."



Jeff Borns, director of USAID's Food for Peace programme was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, "We're in the process now of going country by country and analysing the commodity price increase on each country. Then we're going to have to prioritise." But these are "short-term responses" to the situation, added Barrett. "Fuel and food prices are going to continue to rise; in the long term the solution lies in stimulating smallholder farmers into producing more food in poor countries."

Development Generation Africa International (DGAi) will host the first Abia State Children and Youth Forum on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (ATM) with theme: "Children and Youth Alive and Well" from April 25th, 2008 at Umuahia, capital city, Abia State, as part of the DGAi Nigeria Children and Youth Forum on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (ATM) which will un for one year and aims to stop and start reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria with children and youth voice and participation.

A response that is based on 'human rights' and education and leadership!

Por Efraim Neto – Fiocruz/Ba

A Bahia possui uma das festas populares mais belas do mundo. Povo rico em manifestações culturais, o baiano apresenta ao mundo toda sua hospitalidade, alegria e espontaneidade durante o Carnaval. É também durante esta festa que demonstramos organização e trabalho para que milhões de pessoas que invadem as ruas da cidade de Salvador possam aproveitar bem o reinado de Momo. O Carnaval de Salvador também é famoso por comportar, num só evento, uma pluralidade de ritmos, cores, credos pouco vista em outras localidades. Por isso, não encontramos dificuldades de identificar um espaço para a divulgação de informações sobre a prevenção da DST/Aids e a promoção da saúde.
Quando saiu pela primeira vez pelas ruas de Salvador, no Carnaval de 1996, o Bloco da Camisinha chamou a atenção dos foliões e da mídia pela novidade que representava. A distribuição de 200 mil preservativos mais materiais informativos como folders, pulseiras, adesivos e cartazes colocou a prevenção a AIDS definitivamente na agenda da folia da capital baiana, uma festa que pela sua própria natureza estimula a libido e, caso não haja cuidados, torna propícia a transmissão de Doenças Sexualmente Transmissíveis (DST).
Como a Aids não escolhe etnia, sexo, idade, muito menos festa, o Bloco da Camisinha volta às ruas em 2008 para chamar a atenção e conscientizar a população sobre a importância do isso do preservativo na prevenção de doenças sexualmente transmissíveis, principalmente a Aids.
Em 2007, ao desfilar pelas ruas de Salvador, o bloco conseguiu reunir servidores da Fiocruz e das redes municipais e estadual de saúde, estudantes, autoridades, artistas e parceiros de organizações não-governamentais em prol do seu objetivo. A ação ocorre em parceria com a Secretaria Municipal de Saúde, que vai instalar pontos fixos de distribuição em localidades espalhadas pelos circuitos oficiais da folia. Em 2007, o Ministério da Saúde distribuiu cerca de 10 milhões de preservativos, já em 2008 espera-se que esse número seja maior.
Principal ação do Programa de Prevenção Contra a Aids no Carnaval de Salvador, o bloco participa da festa há mais de 12 anos como fruto inicial de uma parceria entre a Fiocruz -BA e a Escola Nacional de Saúde da Universidade de Harvard. Neste período, o bloco tornou-se a representação lúdica do trabalho cotidiano de diversos setores da saúde.
Hoje, a ação constitui-se como resultado de um esforço conjunto envolvendo as três esferas de governo: 1) Federal, pelo Ministério da Saúde através da FIOCRUZ, Secretaria de Vigilância e Saúde (SVS) e Programa Nacional de DST-Aids (PN-DST/Aids); 2) Estadual, pela Secretaria de Saúde do Estado da Bahia através da Superintendência de Vigilância e Proteção à Saúde (Suvisa-Divep), Coordenação Estadual de DST/Aids (CE-DST/Aids) e Centro de Referência Estadual de Aids (Creaids); e 3) Municipal, pela Secretaria Municipal de Saúde (SMS) através da Coordenação Municipal de DST/Aids (CM-DST/Aids), além das Organizações Não-Governamentais de assistência a portadores de HIV/Aids e demais parceiros das esferas governamentais e não-governamental.
É com este espírito que em 2008 o Bloco da Camisinha volta às ruas de Salvador, com a seguinte programação.

Programação

Quinta-Feira - 31/01/08
Concentração às 19:00hs no Campo Grande (Estátua do Caboclo)
Atração: Carla Cristina com a Banda Tribahia.

Sábado - 02/02/08
Concentração às 13:00hs na Barra (Farol da Barra)
Atração: Simone Sampaio

Segunda – 04/02/08
Concentração às 10:00hs no Largo do Garcia (Módulo Policial)
Atração: Fred Dantas

Bloco da Camisinha: promovendo saúde e proteção no carnaval de Salvador
Translated into English by: Efraim Neto
Por Efraim Neto – Fiocruz/Ba

A Bahia possui uma das festas populares mais belas do mundo. Povo rico em manifestações culturais, o baiano apresenta ao mundo toda sua hospitalidade, alegria e espontaneidade durante o Carnaval. É também durante esta festa que demonstramos organização e trabalho para que milhões de pessoas que invadem as ruas da cidade de Salvador possam aproveitar bem o reinado de Momo. O Carnaval de Salvador também é famoso por comportar, num só evento, uma pluralidade de ritmos, cores, credos pouco vista em outras localidades. Por isso, não encontramos dificuldades de identificar um espaço para a divulgação de informações sobre a prevenção da DST/Aids e a promoção da saúde.
Quando saiu pela primeira vez pelas ruas de Salvador, no Carnaval de 1996, o Bloco da Camisinha chamou a atenção dos foliões e da mídia pela novidade que representava. A distribuição de 200 mil preservativos mais materiais informativos como folders, pulseiras, adesivos e cartazes colocou a prevenção a AIDS definitivamente na agenda da folia da capital baiana, uma festa que pela sua própria natureza estimula a libido e, caso não haja cuidados, torna propícia a transmissão de Doenças Sexualmente Transmissíveis (DST).
Como a Aids não escolhe etnia, sexo, idade, muito menos festa, o Bloco da Camisinha volta às ruas em 2008 para chamar a atenção e conscientizar a população sobre a importância do isso do preservativo na prevenção de doenças sexualmente transmissíveis, principalmente a Aids.
Em 2007, ao desfilar pelas ruas de Salvador, o bloco conseguiu reunir servidores da Fiocruz e das redes municipais e estadual de saúde, estudantes, autoridades, artistas e parceiros de organizações não-governamentais em prol do seu objetivo. A ação ocorre em parceria com a Secretaria Municipal de Saúde, que vai instalar pontos fixos de distribuição em localidades espalhadas pelos circuitos oficiais da folia. Em 2007, o Ministério da Saúde distribuiu cerca de 10 milhões de preservativos, já em 2008 espera-se que esse número seja maior.
Principal ação do Programa de Prevenção Contra a Aids no Carnaval de Salvador, o bloco participa da festa há mais de 12 anos como fruto inicial de uma parceria entre a Fiocruz -BA e a Escola Nacional de Saúde da Universidade de Harvard. Neste período, o bloco tornou-se a representação lúdica do trabalho cotidiano de diversos setores da saúde.
Hoje, a ação constitui-se como resultado de um esforço conjunto envolvendo as três esferas de governo: 1) Federal, pelo Ministério da Saúde através da FIOCRUZ, Secretaria de Vigilância e Saúde (SVS) e Programa Nacional de DST-Aids (PN-DST/Aids); 2) Estadual, pela Secretaria de Saúde do Estado da Bahia através da Superintendência de Vigilância e Proteção à Saúde (Suvisa-Divep), Coordenação Estadual de DST/Aids (CE-DST/Aids) e Centro de Referência Estadual de Aids (Creaids); e 3) Municipal, pela Secretaria Municipal de Saúde (SMS) através da Coordenação Municipal de DST/Aids (CM-DST/Aids), além das Organizações Não-Governamentais de assistência a portadores de HIV/Aids e demais parceiros das esferas governamentais e não-governamental.
É com este espírito que em 2008 o Bloco da Camisinha volta às ruas de Salvador, com a seguinte programação.

Programação

Quinta-Feira - 31/01/08
Concentração às 19:00hs no Campo Grande (Estátua do Caboclo)
Atração: Carla Cristina com a Banda Tribahia.

Sábado - 02/02/08
Concentração às 13:00hs na Barra (Farol da Barra)
Atração: Simone Sampaio

Segunda – 04/02/08
Concentração às 10:00hs no Largo do Garcia (Módulo Policial)
Atração: Fred Dantas