The world's attention was grabbed by the calamity of the Asian tsunami at the end of the year, but millions of people in Southern Africa have entered 2005 unsure of whether they will find enough food to eat. The regional humanitarian crisis that began in 2002, and threatened 15 million people at its peak, has persisted in four countries: Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

The Chancellor of the British Exchequer (that is Finance Minister to you and I), Mr Gordon Brown, a man popularly believed until recently, to be THE heir apparent to Teflon Prime Minister, Blair, is visiting Africa this week, taking in four countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa. In his bag of Goodies is a set of proposals that have been dubbed 'Gordon's Marshall Plan for Africa'.

A former political ally and friendly rival to Blair but now disgruntled by his friend's unwillingness to honour their gentle manly deal to step aside and allow Brown to take over as her majesty's Chief Minister is believed to be striking out differently from Blair to put his own stamp on both domestic and international policy in preparation for his eventual take over. So just as he has been doing inside Britain he is raising his stakes in the rivalry for compassion about Africa in a year in which Britain is heading both the G8 Club of rich nations and their first cousins in the European Union.

Blair has pledged to make Africa the centre piece of his dual presidency but since it is not a personal mandate Brown has every right to put his stamp on it too, just in case the crown falls on him before or after the British elections in May although my analysts are suggesting that because he has waited too long for the crown he may become yet anther 'great PM' Britain never had.

To be honest Brown has been a long campaigner for reforms of the International Monetary Fund and financial institutions to allow for greater debt relief and tremendous increase in Aid to poorer countries in the world.

His friends and their allies in the British media are calling his plan the Marshal Plan after the famous post second world war American General who master minded the post war reconstruction of Europe. This is more than a bit hyperbolic. First Brown is no general. Second, the Marshall plan was fully paid for by the US treasury without needing the support of ay other country as a price for keeping communism out of Western Europe and Asia Pacific. Britain, a middle ranking post imperial country, has neither the resources nor the clout to do the `same for a vast and diverse continent like Africa.

The whole British effort for this year is predicated on the potential influence it may wield as a result of the historical opportunity of being President of the EU and Chair of the G8 countries during 2005. This influence is being talked up but the reality is different.

There are a number of factors that will impact in a humbling way on this accident of history. One, this is an election year in Britain. It is safe to assume that the governing Labour Party will win another term but it is not certain what the composition of that government will be. Thus the unresolved Blair/Brown rivalry will limit British influence. We won’t know which of them will be able to deliver on what deal!

Two, Tony Blair has promised a referendum on Europe to Britain's Euroskeptic public and political classes. The outcome is not altogether a foregone conclusion. If you are a European leader why should you listen to any sermon from Blair about Africa or any other international issue when his country has yet to decide if they are travelling together with you on the Euro train.

Three, Blair's Prime Ministership and his cringing hanging on to Bush's coat tails show that when the chips are down he will follow Bush whatever the European consensus therefore why should other European leaders trust him? So British influence in Europe despite its Presidency will be severely limited.

Four, apart from EU consensus he needs also the support of his American bosses and other G8 countries for his grand vision since Britain is not able to unilaterally support a Marshall Plan for anybody. Again here the answer has to be in the negative. His 'shoulder to shoulder' toadyism with Bush has not yielded any fundamental influence on the neo-con provincial isolationists and unilateralists in power in Washington.

So where does that leave Blair's and Brown's grand plans for Africa? From where I am looking most of it will add to the mountains of well meaning initiatives and little action. Does this mean that there is nothing Britain can do? I am a political optimist therefore I always look at political possibilities. But both Blair and Brown have to abandon their missionary approach to Africa and concentrate on what they can deliver as a government and hope that their good example can catch on with other EU and G8 countries.

They also need to listen and act on what Africans have decided to do for themselves instead of bringing on new plans. Africa does not need new promises but fulfilment of old ones, both those we made to ourselves and those made to us by others.

I will suggest a number of indices of progress for Tony Brown and Gordon Blair. One, it is good that Brown is suggesting a massive increase in Aid budgets for Africa but while this may appeal to the liberal guilt of his western audience and the compassion entrepreneurs in the huge Aid and humanitarian industry it is not going to help Africa in the long run.

The other aspects of his plan concerning reform of trade and finance and Third World debt must receive greater attention. You can quadruple Aid but in the long run it will be like putting water in a basket if unequal trade and unfair financial dealings and debt trap the poor countries. It is not debt relief that is needed but universal debt cancellation. Let Britain lead by example then we will know that it is serious. Two, the demands of global trade and financial justice is not just at the level of commodities and terms of trade but should include labour access. After 5.00 pm (when most offices close) Africans and especially West Africans are in charge of the city of London because they are the cleaners, security staff, etc. Your traffic warden car park attendant, minicab driver and security personel in stores in many areas of London are more likely to be Africans these days. Many of them are highly qualified and professional people just 'doing anything' to make ends meet. Why can't Britain normalise their stay and let them compete on merit with their skills and experience instead of banishing them into the parallel economy of illegal immigrants, permanent part time students, over stayers, etc. Yet in some countries the remittances from these workers are even more than the total Aid into these countries. Many hospitals will not function if African doctors, nurses, auxiliary staff, etc stopped working. So who is aiding whom?

Three, and on this Britain can really inspire the rest of the world and cause a fundamental shift in global accountability, the city of London has been a major beneficiary of stolen money and other assets looted from Africa and other parts of the world by dictators and their Western masters and agents. If we can get back some of these looted funds British taxpayers need not be giving Aid to many African countries. If either Blair or Britain or together can deliver on these three points even critics and cynics like myself will hire praise singers and roll out the talking drums. But would they?

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

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Ruling Zanu PF party councillors and the police have taken over the vetting of hungry villagers requiring food under new distribution procedures that could see opposition supporters sidelined. Under the new procedures, which Zim Online witnessed being implemented in the Midlands province and in some parts of Manicaland, villagers must first get a letter from the Zanu PF councillor of their local ward stating that they should be allowed to buy cheaper priced maize from the government's Grain Marketing Board (GMB).

For centuries, Ugandans have used herbs to treat the symptoms of malaria. Although experience shows that they are effective, their safety has never been tested. Grace Nambatya-Kyeyune is determined to remedy this. Nambatya is director of research at the state-run Natural Chemotherapeutic and Research Laboratory (NCRL). Together with clinicians at Mulago hospital in Kampala, she is evaluating the toxicity of several herbal formulations used to combat malaria.

Members of Great Britain's two main political parties in a letter to the editor of the Daily Telegraph on December 24 launched a petition campaign that would force the European Union to redirect about $5.75 billion annually in farm subsidies to help people in Africa who are living with HIV/AIDS, Reuters reports. The 22 members of Parliament who signed the letter hope to utilize a "little-known" clause in the new E.U. Constitution -- which has not yet been ratified by member states -- that would force the European Commission to take action if one million signatures are collected, Reuters reports.

Malawi aims to more than triple the number of HIV-positive people in the country who are receiving antiretroviral drugs at no cost by July with the help of a $14 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a Malawian health official said on Monday, AFP/Independent Online reports. Malawi in May 2004 began a five-year, $196 million nationwide program to provide antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people at no cost.

This 450-page publication draws on a range of experiences dealing with communication technologies in Africa. It maintains that communication media and techniques can help overcome barriers of literacy, language, cultural differences, and physical isolation, and can educate people about agricultural ideas and technical innovations to improve food production. "Communication can facilitate agricultural development by giving a voice to those involved ... fostering acceptance of agricultural development policies and programmes; mobilising people for participation and action; conveying information for education and training; and helping to disseminate new technologies."

Malnutrition and related diseases are expected to rise in Zimbabwe, peaking in the January to March 2005 period, according to a new report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). While staple cereals are increasingly unavailable in rural areas, maize prices on the parallel market continue to climb, limiting the ability of households to buy enough food to satisfy their needs, said both FEWS NET and the World Food Programme (WFP) in separate surveys.

The African Social Forum, held in Lusaka, Zambia from 10-14 December 2004, attracted approximately 650 social movement activists from across sub-Saharan Africa. Attendees included trade unionists, church leaders, women activists, environmentalists and NGO representatives. The largest delegation was from Zimbabwe; about 100 travelled north by bus, buoyed by the recent success of their own national Social Forum, held despite repeated intimidation by the Zimbabwean authorities. There was significant representation from South Africa,Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria, and smaller delegations from Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire, Senegal and other countries.

Commentators are beginning to raise other fundamental questions about the Tsunami disaster, reports the latest edition of the Africa Focus Bulletin. "Most significantly, can the response to the tsunami be carried over to even more devastating crises that are less photogenic, such as AIDS, global health, conflict, and poverty? Or will the effect be to reduce resources for implementing programs that have not been scaled up for lack of political will and resources? " Despite significant expansion of programs in the last two years, only four percent of the estimated 3.8 million people in need of such treatment in Africa now have access. Global spending on HIV/AIDS in low and middle-income countries was estimated at $6.1 billion in 2004, with the need projected at $12 billion for 2005.

Nelson Mandela broke one of South Africa's great taboos last week by admitting his oldest and only surviving son had died of Aids. Makgatho Mandela, 54, died in a Johannesburg clinic after lengthy treatment for what had been an undisclosed illness. Hours later his father, looking frail but resolute, assembled journalists to the garden of his home to confirm what everyone had suspected.

Three articles published by the Associated Press in mid-December criticising the conduct of a trial of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine in Uganda are threatening to undermine its use in newborn babies in developing countries, according to South African experts. A single dose of the drug given to mothers while in labour and to their babies at the time of birth is known to greatly reduce transmission of HIV from mother to child. The articles, which appeared in newspapers and were broadcast on radio stations in the United States, Britain, South Africa, and many other countries, made allegations about a trial that was conducted from 1997 to 1999 in Uganda by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and subsequently published.

AIDS activists in South Africa have called for the revision of "outdated" HIV/AIDS messages which have been circulating for years but have failed to achieve behaviour change. People require more than awareness and basic education - they need advice on how to apply their knowledge of AIDS to their daily lives. Laura Washington, facilitator of the Durban-based training organisation Project Empower, told IRIN that her group realised that tackling high-risk behaviour was "not about the condom" but about people's "social fabric", such as communication within relationships, gender imbalances and societal perceptions of sexuality.

When Dr Keith Bolton treated children in the 1990s, the death of a patient was still relatively infrequent. As head of child health at South Africa's Coronation Hospital in Johannesburg, Bolton saw an average of one child die each week. Now, Bolton and his colleagues see one child die every day. "In the past, death was an uncommon event in children, especially after the newborn period," said Bolton. "Now we've seen a complete reversal of the gains we made in the 1960s, '70s and '80s."

Mozambique's National Council for the Fight Against AIDS (CNCS) has spent less than 40 percent of the funds allocated to HIV/AIDS activities in the country in 2004. According to the local news agency, AIM, the CNCS had planned programmes costing US $17.7 million, but only $6.5 million was disbursed and used, leaving projects planned by civil society and the public sector in the lurch.

This article, published in Social Science and Medicine, reports on progress towards the goal of health for all, with specific reference to international development commitments made by the G7/G8 nations at the 1999, 2000 and 2001 summits. It argues that the limited progress toward achieving health for all derives largely from the failure of G8 nations to fulfil their development commitments. In particular, efforts to reduce poverty and economic security have been insufficient; and national governments have not been enabled to make basic investments in health systems, education and nutrition.

As a result of falling antiretroviral (ARV) prices, new sources of international funding and growing political commitment, providing treatment for Africa's HIV-positive citizens is, for the first time, an achievable goal. In sub-Saharan 3.8 million people need treatment now, but as of June 2004, only 150,000 were on ARVs - less than four percent of that total. The remaining 96 percent - those parents, workers, lovers and children denied access to the life-prolonging drugs will, unless there is urgent intervention, inevitably join the other 30 million people worldwide that the pandemic has claimed.

In the crowded wards of African hospitals, coughs and bony bodies tell the story of a deadly return. Tuberculosis (TB), supposedly defeated 40 years ago, is back, riding on the AIDS epidemic, and the world is ill-prepared, says the relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). In its study 'Running out of Breath? TB Care in the 21st Century', MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines urges a radical rethink of the global approach to the disease. TB kills two million people every year, nearly all in developing countries. Yet TB, if detected early and treated, is curable.

This toolkit builds on the understanding that mobilising resources (primarily money) is a vital need for any NGO/CBO. It introduces an approach to planning and carrying out resource mobilisation strategically and systematically to ensure that maximum returns are gained for the least effort and that NGOs/CBOs remain true to their missions. (French version available)

There are 1.4 million blind children in the world today, of whom 320 000 live in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the causes of childhood blindness are either preventable or treatable. The causes of sight loss in 44 percent of children attending schools for the blind in Ethiopia were vitamin A deficiency and measles. These two conditions can be avoided with widespread measles immunisation, vitamin A supplements and advice on nutrition.