Aid for Africa » Blog

Africa’s growing economic muscle tells only part of the story

brose — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:11:20 +0000

Africa is making progress economically, according to a new report by McKinsey & Company. With combined gross domestic products across the continent of 1.6 trillion dollars in 2008, Africa is on par with Brazil. Improved political stability and economic reforms seem to be part of the reason, and as Africa continues to expand its presence into the global economy, things will get even better, the report says. In urban areas, where 40 percent of Africans now live, the growing number of consumers will fuel long-term growth, which is occurring in all areas, including natural resources, trade, agriculture, communications, and manufacturing. But, the report notes that there are disparities among countries and that rural poverty continues to be a challenge. An important way out of poverty, the report says, may be through agriculture—a key to raising rural incomes.

The rural poor are an important focus of the work of the members of Aid for Africa, and agriculture is an important component of that work. Millennium Promise for example, along with the Earth Institute, is working in rural areas in ten African countries to increase food production, improve education, prevent and treat disease, and provide access to safe and reliable water. By jump-starting broad economic growth in rural areas, the idea is to feed into broader national goals. A Glimmer of Hope undertakes an innovative and integrated approach to poverty reduction in rural Ethiopia, one village at a time. Village Enterprise Fund provides the means to create income-generating business in rural Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. In an innovative partnership with the government of Sierra Leone, World Hope International is working both to bring foreign investment to the port areas of Sierra Leone and to champion agricultural and water projects in other parts of the country and throughout Africa. Agricultural development and self sufficiency are critical to the Malawi Project ’s efforts to help empower the rural poor in Malawi, where agricultural improvements in recent years have been stunning.

There are many barriers to improving agriculture in rural Sub Saharan Africa, but, as the McKinsey report suggests, Africa has 60 percent of the world’s unused arable land and the low crop yields on the land in use suggest they could be much higher. Poverty reduction efforts that include agricultural development are a natural.

Human Rights and HIV/AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa

brose — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:10:35 +0000

“Rights here, right now,” the theme of the 18th International AIDS Conference kicking off in Vienna, Austria, today, champions the role of human rights in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In Sub Saharan Africa, where more than 22 million people—including 12 million women and nearly 2 million children—live with HIV/AIDS, nowhere is the need greater for supporting human rights, particularly for women and children. But global economic conditions are hampering AIDS treatment and the expansion of HIV prevention efforts around the world, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa. More people die from AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa than anywhere else—72 percent of all deaths from AIDS in 2008. Let us hope that as the conference delegates share research, proposals, and plans this week, the poor and most vulnerable of Sub Saharan Africa will be in their sights.

Aid for Africa members confront the realities of HIV/AIDS everyday as they work with their African partners throughout Sub Saharan Africa. On World AIDS Day 2009, Aid for Africa highlighted some of the work of its members that are increasing access to services, providing effective treatment, and preserving human dignity. It seems appropriate to highlight this again with a few additions.

Health Alliance International works in partnership with ministries of health to build their health systems, including HIV/AIDS testing and treatment projects in Mozambique, where antiretroviral therapy has increased from just 4,000 in 2004 to 80,000 today. African Solutions to African Problems supports community-based programs and women’s networks to help them better deliver life-affirming care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Partners in Health has proved that AIDS can be treated in a poverty setting through its effective model of community-based care now being used in Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi. African Child Care Association provides HIV/AIDS prevention training to teens in Cameroon. mothers2mothers is helping some 50,000 women a month prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS throughout Africa. AID Village Clinics helps educate, prevent, and treat the Maasai of western Kenya affected by HIV/AIDS. Firelight Foundation supports and advocates for children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS. Children of Uganda cares for AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children in Uganda with the goal of helping them become healthy and productive members of society. South Africa Partners creates partnerships between organizations in the United States and South Africa for HIV/AIDS support groups. Foundation for Hospices in Sub Saharan Africa supports African organizations that provide home-based hospice and palliative care to those who are dying of HIV/AIDS. World Hope International provides HIV/AIDS prevention and orphan care. African Services Committee provides HIV testing, prevention, and AIDS support in urban and rural Ethiopia.

For the Love of Soccer

brose — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:05:54 +0000

As the World Cup winds down this week, we are left with images of the best teams in the world competing for the top honor in soccer in vibrant and beautiful South Africa. Through the lens of this African country, many people are also left with images of a continent that they had never seen before and, perhaps, with a connection to a place and a people through their mutual love of soccer. Some images have been captured by Jessica Hilltout, a Belgian photographer who traveled throughout Africa for seven months photographing soccer wherever she found it—from school yards to beaches. Her camera captured games on fields shared with cattle, home-made soccer balls, tattered clothes in lieu of uniforms, and pure happiness.

Rye Barcott, a student at the University of North Carolina, had his own images of youth and soccer when he traveled to Kibera, Kenya, nine years ago. He, too, noticed the love of soccer shared by so many in this slum. But he also saw the anger and hostility that often erupted between people of different regions and ethnicities who were settling in Kibera as they left their villages. Barcott founded Carolina For Kibera with the late nurse Tabitha Atieno Festo and community organizer Salim Mohamed, who each shared the conviction that the poor have the solutions to the problems they face. Barcott started to work with the youth of Kibera though a sports program that engaged them, reduced ethnic tension, and promoted community involvement. His game of choice, of course, was soccer. Last year Carolina for Kibera reached some 3,700 young people through 255 soccer teams throughout Kibera.

Scientific Research Underpins Development Advancements

brose — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:50:24 +0000

An elephant trampling a farmer’s field is a frequent problem in many parts of Africa. One elephant can destroy a farmer’s entire crop. Recent news reports suggest that research scientists may have found an eco-friendly way to keep the elephants out. Scientists have learned that elephants are afraid of swarming bees. So farmers may be able to string up bee hives around their fields. When elephants disturb the wire, they stir up the bees and flee.

Scientific research is an important and often overlooked part of the development process. Without strong science behind advances in food production, medical treatment, pest control, and more, development advances cannot be made and sustained. Aid for Africa counts scientific organizations as critical partners in development. For example, Aid for Africa member scientists at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Kenya study insects that can improve food and human health. Scientists at the International Potato Center have developed a sweetpotato variety to fight vitamin A deficiency– a leading cause of blindness in children in Africa. Women are now planting these sweetpotatoes in their home gardens in ten African countries. Researchers at the International Livestock Research Institute are finding ways to keep cows and other farm animals in tropical countries disease free. And plant scientists have helped Trees for the Future bring communities the best trees for their needs—trees that will survive and flourish. Scientists may now add elephant control to their list of advances that are changing lives in Africa.

Environmental Justice — Using the Law to Protect the Poor and the Environment in Southern Africa

laramony — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:27:35 +0000

It isn’t everyday that an environmentalist takes on the government and wins. When Swaziland’s Environment Minister decided to defy the county’s Environment Authority Act, which called for representation of an environmental nongovernmental organization on its management board, environmentalist Thuli Brilliance Mkama and the organization she started–Yonge Nawe Environmental Action Group–challenged this action in Swaziland’s highest court. It took three years, but she won. Her victory ensures that environmental justice groups and the public will have a say in governmental decisions that affect the environment. Her victory also won her the Goldman Environmental Prize for 2010, which is awarded annually to grassroots heroes around the world who have worked to protect the environment, often at great personal risk. Mkama is one of only a handful of women from Africa who have won the prize. The Kenyan environmentalist and human rights advocate Wangari Maathai won it in 1991. Maathai’s Green Belt Movement International is a member of Aid for Africa.

Mkama is the only public interest environmental attorney in Swaziland. Legal activism has been important in southern Africa for decades, but there clearly is a need for more. Aid for Africa member Southern African Legal Services Foundation (SALS) supports South Africa’s Legal Resources Centre, the oldest legal center in South Africa, which was founded during the fight against apartheid and whose 65 lawyers today work for human rights, the principles of democracy, the rule of law and justice, and equality for the poor and disadvantaged. SALS also supports legal resource centers in Zimbabwe and Namibia. The law is a vital instrument to use against injustice and to support the poor who suffer from it the most. When the only environmental lawyer in the land can challenge her government and win because she has the law on her side, one cannot help but value it all the more.

Embracing Local Community Needs is Key to Conserving Africa’s Wildlife

laramony — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:00:19 +0000

Today, in his column in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof writes about the demise of the African wild dog, also known as the painted dog. Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands throughout Africa, the painted dog is about to disappear—only a few thousand remain in four countries. The Painted Dog Conservation Center in Zimbabwe is trying to change this by caring for injured and orphaned dogs, and by working with the local villagers, who are seen as the key to saving the species. The center’s programs include community development projects for local villages and education on the benefits of wildlife to local populations.

This model is the not new, but it is the future. Aid for Africa members and others have been linking local African communities to wildlife preservation for years. In East Africa, Friends of Conservation—Friends of the Masai Mara supports conservation clubs that educate youth in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem and supports income-generating community development projects. Similar work is underway in Zambia through the African Conservancy. In Tanzania, the African Rainforest Conservancy has been empowering villagers to protect rare forests that are home to a range of wildlife, including more than 100 vertebrate species that are found no where else on earth. Like the others, what is their approach? Conservation through inclusion of those who most affect and benefit from African wildlife—the local communities.

Working to Save Africa’s Rich Biodiversity

laramony — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:59:06 +0000

The United Nations has named 2010 International Biodiversity Year, acknowledging the continued loss of plant and animal species around the world from population growth, urbanization, deteriorating habitats, invasive species, and more. Last year, the U.N. reported that 17,000 animal and plant species are at risk of extinction and some 60 percent of our planet’s ecosystems are no longer able to provide the food, clean water, and other benefits that they had in the past. Many of these species and ecosystems are found in Sub Saharan Africa, where millions of families depend on farming and home gardens for food and income. Wildlife and plant species rely on healthy ecosystems that are severely damaged.

Many Aid for Africa members are working to preserve the continent’s biodiversity. Ecoagriculture Partners works with community groups and farmers to manage farmland in ways that benefit biodiversity such as native plants and animals as well as food production. The International Livestock Research Institute is looking for ways to protect drought-tolerant Ankole cattle found in east and central Africa—a species known for rich milk and meat—which is on the brink of extinction. At current rates of decline, the Ankole is expected to disappear in 50 years.

Veterinarians with the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project have been working for more than two decades to care for the endangered mountain gorilla through one of the world’s first programs to care for endangered species in their own habitat. These and other members work with their African partners to build biodiversity conservation into their programs. This work is critically important and needs support. Scientists believe there is still time and opportunity for biodiversity conservation in Africa during
2010–International Biodiversity Year–and beyond.

PBS Turns a Much-Needed Spotlight on Maternal Health Risks in the Wake of the Haiti Earthquake

laramony — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:20:00 +0000

It isn’t surprising that a team from the PBS newsmagazine NOW turned to Ann Starrs, president and cofounder of Family Care International, when it wanted to better understand why women in Haiti have the highest rate of death in childbirth in the Western Hemisphere and what some 63,000 pregnant Haitian women now face in the aftermath of the earthquake. For more than two decades, Aid-for-Africa-member Family Care International has been working in Africa and Latin America to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for women and girls. There are not many nonprofit organizations around the world that place maternal health at the center of their mission. Family Care International was one of the first and remains one of the few.

Having a child in Sub Saharan Africa is risky business. According to UNICEF, 1 in 16 women in the region die during pregnancy or in childbirth. In Haiti, before the earthquake, the rate was 1 in 44 women. In the United States it is 1 in 4,800 women. Family Care International works on the ground with local groups to focus attention on maternal deaths, forge consensus around proven strategies, accelerate action, and save women’s lives. It is encouraging that the PBS Emmy-winning show has chosen to focus on this issue in the context of Haiti’s crisis. We hope that spotlight draws broader attention to this crisis in African countries such as Kenya, Mali and Burkina Faso, as well.

Alternatives to Orphanages Bring Hope to Africa’s Vulnerable Children

laramony — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:22:05 +0000

The United Nations estimates that more than 55 million African children have lost one parent and that almost 15 million of them have lost a parent to AIDS. Orphanages are often seen as a solution for these orphaned and vulnerable children. In a recent article in the New York Times, Celia Dugger suggests an alternative. Most often these children end up living with extended family members, many who are struggling to care for their own children. Pilot efforts underway in Malawi to support families that are caring for orphans have potential. Another approach not mentioned by Dugger shows promise in South Africa. A British and U.S. charity, African Solutions to African Problems, supports local women’s organizations that run community day-care centers for orphaned and vulnerable children. Children arrive at the centers each morning, and local women running the centers ensure that they receive nutritious food, healthcare, schooling, and psychological support. The women receive training in gardening, child care, and management–whatever it takes. The result: healthy and happy children and sustainable community institutions run by local women–a win-win. In some of the poorest rural areas of South Africa today, some 600 women care for 9,000 children in these centers, and the number is growing.

For Aid for Africa Members, Every Day is World AIDS Day

laramony — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:10:26 +0000

Two-thirds of the people in the world living with HIV and AIDS are in Sub Saharan Africa. In its 2009 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, UNAIDS found that more than 22 million people in the region have HIV/AIDS. In 2008, 1.4 million people in the region died of AIDS and almost 2 million became infected with HIV. Compounding the high rates of disease in many areas are inadequate health care systems–poor countries have few health centers, hospitals or health care workers, and so struggle to provide critical care and treatment.

The numbers can be overwhelming, and yet valuable progress is being made in increasing access to HIV and AIDS services. The theme of this, the 21st World AIDS Day, is Universal Access and Human Rights. While most Aid for Africa charities confront the realities of HIV/AIDS everyday as they work with their African partners throughout the continent, we would like to call attention to a few that are even more specifically focused on increasing access to services, providing effective treatment options and preserving human dignity, a vital component of combating the spread of the epidemic.

Health Alliance International works in partnership with ministries of health to build their health systems, including HIV/AIDS testing and treatment projects in Mozambique, where antiretroviral therapy has increased from just 4,000 in 2004 to 80,000 today. African Solutions to African Problems supports community-based programs and women’s networks to help them better deliver life-affirming care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Partners in Health has proved that AIDS can be treated in a poverty setting through its effective model of community-based care now being used in Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi. African Child Care Association provides HIV/AIDS prevention training to teens in Cameroon. Mothers2mothers is helping some 50,000 women a month prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS throughout Africa. AID Village Clinics helps educate, prevent, and treat the Maasai of western Kenya affected by HIV/AIDS. Firelight Foundation supports and advocates for children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS. Children of Uganda cares for AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children in Uganda with the goal of helping them become healthy and productive members of society. South Africa Partners creates partnerships between organizations in the United States and South Africa for HIV/AIDS support groups. Foundation for Hospices in Sub Saharan Africa supports African organizations that provide home-based hospice and palliative care to those who are dying of HIV/AIDS. World Hope International provides HIV/AIDS prevention and orphan care.

On World AIDS day, we applaud all who are supporting efforts to prevent the spread of HIV and treat and care for those living with HIV and AIDS.