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News
Gw/oB news updates and highlights
July 21, 2008
Gates-Led Micro-Enterprise Can Help Africans Survive, Thrive
The retirement of Bill Gates from Microsoft continues to reverberate through the business world, but it's in the nonprofit community that the real shock waves will be felt. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has funded some of the most important and far-reaching aid and development initiatives ever seen. It has transformed the global health field from a poorly resourced cadre of experts to a networked, well-financed force for good. With today's tough challenges, Gates' move to full-time philanthropy is welcome news. Micro-enterprise is the key to improving the standard of living and enhancing the quality of life for Africans today. If Bill Gates can do with these business opportunities what he did for Microsoft — and persuade others of the strength of this approach — the developing world may begin to flourish instead of simply developing. Local industries and businesses should be prime targets for investors since they are likely to have the greatest impact on the average African. Capitalizing on already present natural and human resources allows Africans and their partners in trade and aid to take the first, necessary step toward eradicating poverty permanently. By raising awareness about potential opportunities, mobilizing villagers to participate, building capacity in various forms, and exploring product development at different levels, Africa can and will grow. More at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008051388_gatesop15.html
Corporate Social Irresponsibility
When companies forsake their broadly defined social responsibilities or use spin to construct a deliberately overinflated image of their corporate citizenship, the end result is a private sector and a civil society out of balance. Too prevalent today are heavily promoted, self-generated snippets designed to show how businesses are meeting their obligations to society. Paid advertisements that wave banners about how companies address global warming, curb health-care costs, or improve public education often are smoke screens to hide a troubling trend: the significant falloff in corporate charitable contributions. Twenty-five years ago, businesses allocated about 2%, on average, of their pretax profits for gifts and grants, according to a report by the Giving USA Foundation and Indiana University Center on Philanthropy. Today, companies are only about one-third as generous. Based on a recent analysis of IRS tax returns—which are, of course, devoid of hype—business charitable deductions now average only about 0.7% of pretax earnings. (These figures don't take into account employee volunteer hours, as the IRS does not allow deductions for employee volunteer time, even if it is time off with pay.) More at http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jul2008/ca2008078_783872.htm?chan=careers_managing+index+page_top+stories
Leadership, Not Scapegoats
For years, anti-immigrant groups have waved the green flag to push a xenophobic agenda. And some environmentalists even support them; an anti-immigration faction nearly won control of the Sierra Club's board of directors in 2004. Now the usual suspects are at it again. The Times and Nation ads were paid for by "America's Leadership Team for Long Range Population-Immigration-Resource Planning," a front group for five anti-immigration organizations, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform—better known as FAIR—the American Immigration Control Foundation, and the Social Contract Press—which are all listed as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Let's not cede this issue to the anti-immigration zealots, who have little to offer, aside from draconian immigration policies and the police state needed to enforce them. If these groups are truly "America's Leadership Team," we are in big trouble. The complex connection between population growth and the environment is of great importance to our common future. But progressives have remained largely silent about this issue. Progressive publications and organizations could contribute a nuanced understanding of the problem and promote real solutions—like universal access to reproductive health services, equal rights for women and girls, and a just and sustainable global economic system. More at
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/07/leadership.html
Mandela as Reminder and Symbol
Thinking about Nelson Mandela's birthday, what comes to mind is how I felt—how the world felt—watching his release over a decade ago. There were so many moments that made me cry. Cry that they, we, Africa, the world had done it. South Africa was free. We could all therefore aspire to freedom—believing, knowing it could be achieved, in our lifetime. Hope was what Mandela symbolised then. He represented the very best of us. And he symbolised our hope that Africa as a whole could—and would—realise the best of itself. Today, however, not so many years later, I wonder what has become of those aspirations—for freedom, for love, for hope in the best of us. The electoral process—so important in 1994 for South Africa and the rest of us as we moved back towards political pluralism—is now a travesty. From Ethiopia to Uganda to Nigeria and, most recently and tragically, to Kenya and Zimbabwe, it is clear that even those most basic of human rights were not won definitively in the 1990s. And South Africa has now well lost the moral high ground that it had assumed in 1994. More at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/49488
July 5, 2008
Foreign NGOs Lose Tax Status in Russia
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed a decree reducing the number of international organizations allowed to issue tax-free grants from 101 to just 12, Interfax reported Wednesday. The sharp reduction could raise new fears about a crackdown on foreign nongovernmental organizations. Groups whose grants will no longer be tax-exempt from Jan. 1 include the World Wildlife Fund (Switzerland), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Switzerland), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS (Switzerland), the Ford Foundation (U.S.), the Eurasia Foundation (U.S.) and the Royal Society (Britain), Interfax reported. More at http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1010/42/368691
Brazil Criticized for NGO Plan
Non-governmental organisations active in Brazil will have to re-register with the government under regulations that have drawn criticism from campaigners. Organisations will need to detail their sources of financing, list executives and provide a breakdown of their plans and locations of operations as well as a host of supporting documentation. Those failing to comply could be kicked out of the country. The measure, announced at the end of last week, will allow the government and other public bodies to identify which NGOs are acting where and in what capacity. The government says the move is necessary to impose order in a sector in which organisations have mushroomed. Government reports have recently claimed that some NGOs have been engaged in bio-piracy – obtaining patents for drugs based on traditional medicines – and that others act as fronts for other illegal activities. They are also snapping up land in sensitive areas of the Amazon. More at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/84171792-4c4e-11dd-96bb-000077b07658.html
Judge Refuses Dismissal of Muslim Charity Lawsuit
A federal judge declined to dismiss an indictment against the former leaders of a Muslim charity accused of financing terrorism, brushing aside defense arguments of prosecutorial misconduct. Defense attorneys had argued that materials left by prosecutors in the jury room during deliberations in the trial of Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development created a rift among jurors that unfairly forced last fall's mistrial after 19 days of deliberations. Prosecutors countered that the materials, most of which were shown to jurors during the two-month trial as learning aids to navigate the hundreds of pieces of admitted evidence, were placed in the jury room by mistake. U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis on Monday backed the government's argument that those materials didn't cause the mistrial. A retrial is scheduled for Sept. 8. The mistrial was declared in October after a chaotic scene in which jurors disputed the verdict in open court even though the forewoman said no one objected during final deliberations. More at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5876430.html
The G8 Communiqué on Climate: Regression, not a Forward Movement
(From the Statement of Organizations Affiliated with the G8 Action Network)
The G8's communiqué regarding their action on climate is actually inaction being masked as movement. It is a great fraud being perpetrated on the global community that would significantly reduce its capacity to contain climate change. We fully agree with the statement of the Government of South Africa that "[W]hile the Statement may appear as a movement forward, we are concerned that it may, in effect, be a regression from what is required to make a meaningful contribution to meeting the challenges of climate change." The G8's 50 per cent formula is objectionable on several counts: First, the G8 formula is a global cut, not one undertaken by the industrialized or Annex One countries, so big polluters like the US can actually free-ride on the rest of the world. Second, the cut has no clear baseline. It was revealing that in announcing it, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda initially said it was from 1990 levels, then had to take back that statement and subsequently mentioned a 2000 baseline. Third, this declaration of intent is not binding and there is no indication that the G8 want to bring their "commitment" fully under the United Nations climate negotiations framework that would bind its signatories. More at http://focusweb.org/index.php
July 8, 2008
Gates Foundation to Support Health, Agriculture Initiatives in China
The Gates Foundation is planning to address several public health challenges in China, including smoking and HIV/AIDS, and will try to tap the country's expertise to improve African agriculture, the Seattle Times reports. While China's economic boom has generated significant wealth in recent years, several regions of the country remain impoverished and are experiencing various epidemics. To tackle the HIV/AIDS problem, the foundation opened an office in Beijing last year and has committed $50 million to the effort. It is also making grants to support hepatitis B vaccinations in the country, where the disease affects about 10 percent of the population, and plans to support programs that transfer Chinese agricultural expertise to Africa in an effort to raise crop yields on the continent. The Chinese government historically has been wary of foreign nonprofits and routinely has put the country's top AIDS activists under house arrest, which could pose problems for the foundation. Gates, however, is cautiously optimistic about the government's willingness to cooperate and noted that the foundation worked closely with China's Health Ministry to develop its new initiatives. More at http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=219100025
A Defining Moment for Zimbabwe
In essence, what came out of the African Union summit in Egypt, which presumably ventilated the Zimbabwean imbroglio thoroughly, was to leave it to the people to gird their loins for what might turn out to be a bruising or an amicable struggle to rescue the country from the brink of a disaster. The mildly critical declaration for a call for a government of national unity contained no muscle that one could detect from a distance. Its politeness, as with everything the AU has attempted on Zimbabwe, must have been greeted by huge yawns of boredom by both combatants in the struggle. It would be most encouraging to conclude that both parties are agreed on the essence of a government of national unity (GNU). But this would not be an accurate or even remotely hopeful analysis of the scenario. First, there is the violence in which unarmed citizens have been victims of mayhem. Secondly, there is the unresolved question of who should head this GNU – Tsvangirai or Mugabe. If this were going to turn out to be a defining moment for Zimbabwe, you could argue, with good reason, that both men would lower their own personal expectations in favour of their country's and their people's. But would that be realistic? More at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/49176
Raising the Voices of Burma's People
Charm Tong is an internationally recognized democracy activist and co-founder of Shan Women's Action Network and The School for Shan State Nationalities Youth. At the age of six, she was forced to flee Burma to escape the harsh military regime, and, when she was just 17 years old, she testified before the UN Commission on Human Rights on the situation of Shan State. Most recently, she received the Vital Voices 2008 Global Leadership Award. In this article for World Pulse Magazine, Charm Tong addresses topics ranging from women's empowerment, violence against women and rape as a tool of repression and a path forward for moving democracy in Burma. Tong states, "We need real and coordinated action to put pressure on Burma's regime to come to dialogue. We know that other countries are aware of the political situation, and yet, so many countries have economic, business, and investment interests in Burma through the regime. This economic support only further funds the regime's atrocities. We want countries to review their policies of business and trade engagement. We need to see concrete action from neighboring countries; we need them to speak and to act. And I think ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) can do more than they are currently doing. All of us in the international community can support this dream and the hopes of our people." More at http://www.worldpulse.com/newsletters/2008/06/feature2.html
Markets for the Poor in Mexico
Helping the poor may be virtuous, but when the poverty industry starts losing "clients" because the market is performing good works, watch out. Compartamos Banco knows what it's like to have a tarnished halo. The Mexican bank specializes in microfinancing for low-income entrepreneurs in a country that never used to have a financial industry serving the poor. Compartamos not only figured out how to meet the needs of this excluded population, but also how to make money at it. As a result, the bank has been growing fast. With an average loan size of only $450, it now has more than 900,000 clients – 15 times as many as it had in 2000. This strong growth suggests that the bank's for-profit model makes both borrowers and lenders better off. Yet the triumph is not good news for everyone. In the economic sector that Compartamos serves – those making about $10 a day – the international charity brigade is at risk of becoming obsolete. Perhaps this explains why people who make their living giving away other people's money are badmouthing Compartamos for the vulgar practice of earning "too much" profit. More at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121478119445214333.html
June 30, 2008
Prudent Fiduciaries Favor Investment Decisions that are Mission Aligned
Today, fiduciaries regularly and prudently approve investments in private equities, venture capital and hedge funds. The definition of reasonable risk has evolved and is now taking a new turn. The hot topic for foundation trustees is the extent to which fiduciary duty obligates them to analyze the mission alignment of an investment choice as well as its financial risk and potential return. Foundations receive favorable tax treatment because they do charitable work. That tax treatment extends to all foundation assets, not just those disbursed as grants. Consequently, there is an emerging belief that a prudent fiduciary should consider the social impact of all investment decisions and favor those that are mission-aligned. This discipline, known as 'mission-related investing' or 'MRI', received a burst of attention last year, when the Los Angeles Times identified some of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation investments as running counter to some of their global health programs. But it's not just the Gates Foundation: many foundations would likely find this sort of conflict if they started to look at their investments closely. More at http://www.alliancemagazine.org/members/html/0806/jun08o.html
Destroying African Agriculture
African agriculture is a case study of how doctrinaire economics serving corporate interests can destroy a whole continent's productive base. Agriculture is in deep crisis, and the causes are many, including civil wars and the spread of HIV-AIDS. However, a very important part of the explanation was the phasing out of government controls and support mechanisms under the structural adjustment programs to which most African countries were subjected as the price for getting IMF and World Bank assistance to service their external debt. Instead of triggering a virtuous spiral of growth and prosperity, structural adjustment saddled Africa with low investment, increased unemployment, reduced social spending, reduced consumption, and low output, all combining to create a vicious cycle of stagnation and decline. Moreover, reality refused to conform to the doctrinal expectation that the withdrawal of the state would pave the way for the market and private sector to dynamize agriculture. In country after country, the predictions of neoliberal doctrine yielded precisely the opposite: the departure of the state "crowded out" rather than "crowded in" private investment. The usually pro-private sector Economist agreed, admitting that "many of the private firms brought in to replace state researchers turned out to be rent-seeking monopolists." More at http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5271
Global Warming not an Energy, Technology or Policy Problem: It is the Greatest Failure of Thought in Human History
One of the reasons government and industry pursue quick fixes is to avoid the fundamental changes needed to resolve complex problems such as global warming. For example, they hope that technological solutions such as ethanol can solve the problems without having to make deep-seated changes in our mobility systems. This is a form of wishful thinking. It is based on the hope that some new invention will resolve our problems and relieve us of the need to alter our behavior. The reality, however, is that rather than solving the problem, given our current thinking most new technologies require more of everything—more resource extraction, more raw materials, more processing, more transportation, and even more energy. Only after people alter their thinking, which means to think sustainably, will the personal and organizational behaviors, clean energy technologies, and policies required to reduce emissions and stabilize the climate become evident. More at http://www.earthscan.co.uk/Portals/0/PDFs/DoppeltOpinionPieceMay2008.pdf
Vodacom Expands NSN Village Connection in Tanzania
After successful experiments in India, Vodacom has begun trials of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) Village Connection system in Tanzania. The initiative is called "a partnership-based business strategy" aimed at increasing the reach of the mobile phone network. At a recent presentation to analysts and journalists, Marc Rouanne, NSN's recently appointed Head of Radio Access, confirmed that Village Connection will be one of the company's key strategies for expanding coverage in developing and emerging markets. Typically, the program works as follows: a local entrepreneur in a previously unconnected area forms a partnership with a mobile network operator and a micro-finance provider. The developer acquires an Access Point which can support up to 70 handsets. The Access Point can be set up in a very short timeframe without trained network personnel. The local developer is then in a position to market coverage to customers in the area and can provide a range of services including pre- and post-paid voice, SMS, flat rate local calls, etc. Billing and support are all provided locally. One of the principal benefits for network operators is that the system avoids prohibitive rollout costs. More at http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/view/160923/1/1138
June 23, 2008
Interventionists Abroad
The advent of demanding, interventionist, micro-managing donors with low levels of expertise and high expectations is a frequent lament in professional philanthropy. But to see this as a consequence of the so-called 'new philanthropy' is an over-simplification – or just plain wrong. Intervention bordering on interference or micro-management is not a new development at all. Is donor intervention on the rise? Part of the fashion for philanthropy among the ultra-wealthy now has to do with not just whether one is a philanthropist but how one is a philanthropist. Involvement is in, passion is in, and commitment is in. What's sometimes overlooked, though, is that many donors who say that they are 'hands on' or 'results oriented' are simply saying what's expected. Recently we asked a family about their approach to philanthropy, and they all declared themselves advocates of 'venture philanthropy', interested in innovation, risk, and deep involvement in the organizations they might fund. But they were horrified when asked if they'd be comfortable as one of the first ten funders of a new non-profit. More at http://www.alliancemagazine.org/members/html/0806/jun08l.html
Investments in People
"Philanthropy is one of those wonderfully antique words that we will stop using in 10 to 15 years," says Bill Drayton, who founded Ashoka and pioneered the idea of identifying and investing in entrepreneurs. "The business/social boundaries are simply collapsing." As models such as venture philanthropy, microfinance and social entrepreneurship are embraced by non-profit organisations, and corporations start to focus on social issues, the barriers between the business and non-profit sectors continue to erode. Leading the way, when it comes to breaking down these barriers, is an expanding cohort of non-profit organisations whose mission is to support for-profit entrepreneurs. In Afghanistan, for example, Arzu Rugs helps women generate income by sourcing and selling their rugs, providing employment for about 700 female weavers in the country's villages. Drayton argues that the old division between sectors is meaningless for entrepreneurs. "Entrepreneurs disrespect boundaries – they don't care if it's business or social," he says. "With every human need, you have a business system serving the need and a social system serving the need and for centuries they haven't talked to each other – that's all changed." More at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/771993f0-3423-11dd-869b-0000779fd2ac.html
World Bank Called 'Unqualified' to Run Climate Fund
Organizations from 40 countries called on leaders of the developing world yesterday to oppose World Bank plans to establish a "Clean Technology Fund" that they fear will have little or no impact on halting global warming. "The Clean Technology Fund [includes] no definition of clean technology," said Kenny Bruno, international program director for Oil Change International, one of the signatory groups. By leaving definitions of key terms hazy, the groups argue, the World Bank leaves the door open to use scarce resources in support of energy initiatives likely to have only a minor impact on climate change. "What they are really proposing is a 'slightly less dirty' technology fund, which will include financing of coal plants that are somewhat less polluting than the dirtiest plants out there," Bruno charged. More than 120 environment, human rights, faith-based, and indigenous rights groups from countries as diverse as Argentina, Belarus, Sweden, and Togo issued a joint statement urging developing country governments to reject the World Bank plan until several major issues are resolved. More at http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/160806/1/7263
The Food Crisis: Hunger for Bread, Hunger for Roses
The cost of food staples has risen sharply on every continent and has led to what are being called hunger riots in some of the countries with the very weakest economies. In fact, the rioters are not those who are famished themselves, but people who live in poverty and see in this food crisis how very close they are to the abyss of extreme poverty and hunger. They have been rioting in fear of hunger. Those whose families already pushed to the limits of survival from day to day rarely manage to join in marches. Occasionally they may manage to join in a demonstration for a day, but this means losing any chance of finding an odd job that day, any chance of earning enough to feed their children, and also risking reprisals and fines. Today, with food security finally at the top of the international agenda, to whom will we turn for solutions? If we really want to put an end to hunger, we have to go much further. In every community, some people are much worse off than others and will never be reached by traditional aid structures or development programmes, however equitable their design is intended to be. Only those struggling to survive day to day know exactly what obstacles they face. Only they can bear witness to the many unseen acts of solidarity between people living in poverty and those even worse off. For development to become truly sustainable, it must be anchored in these daily efforts, rather than overwhelming and displacing them. More at http://www.civicus.org/new/content/CSWMB_May_No36.htm
AGRA Launches Partnership with Millennium Challenge Corporation to Tackle Poverty, Hunger in Africa
The Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA) – a collaboration between the Rockefeller and Bill & Melinda Gates foundations – has announced a new partnership with the U.S. government's Millennium Challenge Corporation to help African countries tackle poverty and hunger through productivity improvements at small-scale farms and poor rural households. MCC and AGRA will work to identify projects and activities with the potential to foster broad-based agricultural growth and poverty alleviation. Likely areas of activity include building roads, irrigation, and other agriculture-related infrastructure; advancing agriculture research; multiplication of seed; distribution of technologies to small-scale farmers; increasing access to financing for farmers, farmer groups, and agribusiness; improving dry and cold storage, food processing, and other "value-added" systems; and working toward a policy environment that is more conducive for domestic agricultural growth, investment, and trade. "Collaborations such as ours are essential to putting in place long-term solutions to the food crisis," said AGRA chairman and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. "It is incumbent upon us, as major supporters of agricultural development, to approach development differently than it has been approached in the past, in order to propel progress on the ground." More at http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=217600020
June 2, 2008
$100-Million in Aid Pledged for Girls in Poor Countries
Charities that seek to promote the well being of adolescent girls in developing countries are poised to receive an infusion of money, thanks to a new partnership between the Nike Foundation and the NoVo Foundation, which is run by Peter Buffett and his wife, Jennifer. The two grantmakers will contribute $100-million through 2011 to organizations that work with girls and young women in poor countries. The foundations' leaders say that by helping girls they hope entire countries can be lifted out of poverty. When 10 percent more girls in a country go to secondary school, for example, the nation's economy grows by 3 percent. But girls have suffered from a lack of philanthropic and government support, the foundations' officials say. For example, less than 0.5 percent of every dollar of official government assistance to poor countries in 2003 went to efforts that directly support the roughly 600 million young women and girls living in the developing world. "It's one of those issues that's extremely difficult to get on the global agenda and extremely difficult to get resources behind," said Maria Eitel, president of the Nike Foundation. "There's this presumption that girls are being addressed, but what we've found is that's not true." More at http://philanthropy.com/news/updates/index.php?id=4793
In U.S., a Multitude of Forces Drains the Spirit of Giving
Maybe it's the pinch of $4-a-gallon gas and the economic downturn. Maybe it's distrust of Burma's ruling junta or concern over human rights violations in China. Or maybe the American people are going through "disaster fatigue," the feeling that we've seen it all before. But the simple fact is this: In the weeks since a cyclone laid waste to Burma's delta region and an earthquake devastated a central Chinese province - catastrophes that collectively left 184,000 people dead or missing and displaced millions - Americans have donated an estimated $57 million to disaster relief charities. Compare that with the $207 million that Americans donated in the first five days after an Indian Ocean tsunami struck southern Asia in 2004. Or the $226 million raised in five days after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast. Americans historically respond to natural disasters with an outpouring of giving, but the charitable response to the cyclone that hit Burma on May 3 and the earthquake that struck China on May 12 has been modest at best. Experts attributed the downturn in giving to a medley of forces, including a domestic economy that has left many Americans with little disposable income, a distrust of disaster relief charities and geopolitical tensions. More at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/22/AR2008052204116_pf.html
How to Manufacture a Global Food Crisis: Lessons from the World Bank, IMF and WTO
When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a sharp increase of over 60 per cent in the price of tortillas, the flat unleavened bread that is Mexico's staple, many analysts pointed to biofuels as the culprit. Owing to US government subsidies, turning corn into ethanol had become more profitable than growing it for food consumption, prompting American farmers to devote more and more of their acreage to it, in the process sparking off a steep rise in corn prices. The diversion of corn from tortillas to biofuel was certainly one of the proximate causes of the skyrocketing prices, though speculation on likely trends in biofuel demand by transnational middlemen may have played a bigger role. However, an intriguing question escaped many observers: How on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was first domesticated, become "dependent" on imports of US corn in the first place? The Mexican food crisis cannot be fully understood without taking into account the fact that in the years preceding the tortilla crisis, the homeland of corn had been converted to a corn importing economy by free market policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and Washington. More at http://www.focusweb.org/how-to-manufacture-a-global-food-crisis-lessons-from-the-world-bank-imf-an.html?Itemid=1
Mixed Reactions to U.S. Farm Bill
The $300 billion U.S. Farm Bill is getting high marks from advocates of U.S. food and nutrition programs, but was blasted by those concerned about the global poor and giveaways to the already rich. Some aid organizations are criticizing the bill for failing to fix what they call a "broken" system of U.S. food aid abroad. Oxfam also faults the bill for failing to shift U.S. food aid policy away from an emphasis on U.S.-grown commodities to offering more cash assistance that would enable countries to buy more quickly and directly from local sources. Such a move, the group says, would make U.S. assistance abroad much more efficient and support local industries in those countries at the same time, helping break the long-term cycle of poverty. Jos Linn, Results' domestic outreach organizer, told OneWorld, "Commodity supports also exacerbate world poverty through their trade-distorting effects and strain relations with our trade allies." Linn was referring to the phenomenon that allows U.S. farmers to sell their goods abroad at excessively low prices because the subsidies provided by U.S. taxpayers make up the difference in revenue. This drives down prices - and incomes - for farmers around the world, and creates particular hardship for those in Africa and other parts of the world where vast majorities of the population depend on income from farming. More at http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/160644/1/7263
UN Says Aid Reaches One Million Victims of Myanmar Cyclone
Relief efforts by aid agencies have reached around one million people in Myanmar, just over 40 per cent of those affected by Cyclone Nargis, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Speaking to reporters today in Geneva, OCHA spokesperson Elizabeth Byrs said that the 40 per cent figure does not include aid distributed by the Government. Some 153 international flights had arrived in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, she said, and between 10 and 15 flights are coming in every day. The UN World Food Programme will start operating 10 helicopters in Myanmar as soon as possible, after the Government gave the go-ahead to their deployment. So far, WFP and its partners have delivered over 3,000 tons of food aid reaching some 460,000 people. Meanwhile, WHO said that the highest priority now for affected populations is access to water, sanitation and basic healthcare. The agency has mobilized a specialized team to focus on malaria prevention and control. WHO and other health agencies have called for greater financial support to meet victims' health needs, following an international pledging conference held in Yangon on Sunday, which was chaired by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN. More at http://www.un.org/apps/news/morenews.asp?Cr=myanmar&Cr1=
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