With the next African meningitis outbreak possibly less than two months away and amid the threat of an uncommon strain that could undermine vaccination efforts, the International Federation of the Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres, UNICEF and the World Health Organization have asked donors for $10 million to stockpile vaccines and other drugs.

This paper, written for policy makers, considers the role education has to play in both preventing and mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS. The strategy outlined in the document identifies key priorities for a scaled up response to the epidemic on the part of schools and the education system more generally. The report focuses on formal educational institutions as important in the delivery of prevention and mitigation measures, but also recognises that many of the young people affected by the epidemic are not attending school and that the epidemic has an impact on schools' ability to deliver effective education.

Goals set two years ago by African leaders to reduce the incidence of malaria have not been met, according to a report presented by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the U.N. General Assembly, the Washington Times reports. According to malaria activists, the resources of programs aimed at fighting malaria - which is preventable and curable yet kills approximately 2.7 million people each year -- are being "drain[ed]" by efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Millions of children's lives are being lost or blighted because pledges to take action to curb the spread of malaria have not been kept, either by heads of state in poor countries or by wealthy donor states, a leading economist says. Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, launched a hard-hitting attack on leaders in both the affluent north and the poor south on the eve of a UN general assembly session on malaria which will assess progress since the pledges two years ago at an African summit on malaria.

Research two decades ago showed that malaria infection in pregnant Gambian women increased the health risks for mother and baby. A new study by the Medical Research Council Laboratories in Fajara shows that the situation has not improved. Why have policy-makers failed to implement strategies to protect pregnant women?

Women are 75 times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa than in developed regions. Reducing maternal mortality is therefore high on the international health agenda. But how effective are current efforts to improve maternal health in developing countries?

At the end of 2001, there were 28.1 million sub-Saharan Africans living with HIV/Aids. The overall prevalence of HIV among sub-Saharan African adults, ages 15 to 49 years, is estimated to be an astounding 8.4 percent.

Cases of polio reported in Nigeria this year have raised doubts about the country's ability to meet its target of eradicating the disease by the end of the year, a UNICEF official said on Saturday. A total of 124 cases were recorded in 14 states between January and July 2002, UNICEF's Caroline Atosile told a sensitisation workshop at Ota, near Lagos.

Slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Malawi and preventing the nation's already high maternal mortality rate from climbing must be addressed as an integral part of the humanitarian response to Southern Africa's famine, the U.N. Population Fund has warned. Widespread hunger and a related cholera epidemic have caused maternal death rates to rise sharply this year.

There is a common perception that the food crisis in Malawi has been caused by the floods that ruined the planting season in 2001, or by widespread government corruption and mismanagement. These undoubtedly have contributed to the crisis. But there is another cause, which has been even more significant - inappropriate policies of donor agencies, led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Hunger and food shortage has always been a problem in Malawi, hence the poor nutrition levels of 32 percent of the population. In the past, food shortages have been addressed through food aid from donors and government subsidies for basic food channelled through the grain board, the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC). This system has allowed the people of Malawi to survive the seasons of adverse weather, and the government corruption and mismanagement which has persisted through years of good harvest and bad.

However, over the past twenty years the agriculture sector has been restructured by the IMF and World Bank, under their structural adjustment policies. In agriculture, these policies are supposedly aimed at improving efficiency and productivity. But, as in other countries such as Zambia and Mozambique, the donors have ignored the reality of farming systems in Malawi and have assumed that markets will be able to meet social aims; to supply food at affordable prices throughout the country, and to ensure that smallholder farmers can feed their families. Instead, Malawi now faces chronic food insecurity. The IMF/World Bank policies in Malawi's agricultural sector, supported by the bilateral aid donors, have failed.

Prior to these reform programs, the Malawi Government could ensure food availability even in the remotest areas of the country. Through subsidies and controlled prices, farmers were assured of affordable farm inputs and grain stores were maintained in remote areas. However, with the introduction of the agricultural reforms, Malawi is now faced by famine even more serious than the fabled 1949 hunger crisis.

As in other countries, agricultural reforms were imposed on Malawi without the donors having undertaken a proper analysis of their potential impact and consequences, particularly on the poor. Standard policies were applied to Malawi, following a one-size-fits-all approach. Subsidies for small farmers and the poor were reduced, price controls and regulations removed, and agencies that played a social role, such as the agricultural marketing agency, ADMARC, were re-structured and/or privatised.

The results in Malawi have included price rises and increased volatility. For instance, the removal of price controls led to a price increase for maize of 400 percent between October 2001 and March 2002. Private grain traders have followed the market signals all too well – they have hoarded supplies and made money out of food shortages. This spirit of profiteering has fuelled corruption amongst Government officials in Malawi.

Agricultural reforms have done little to address the real problems of food production in Malawi - rural poverty, the impact of HIV/AIDS and discrimination against women. The chronic levels of poverty in Malawi's rural areas significantly affects agricultural productivity as it directly impacts on labour availability, access to inputs, health and education and other key social indicators. Over 60 percent of Malawians live below the poverty line, and 20 percent of Malawi’s adult population are HIV positive. Women constitute 70 per cent of Malawi’s full time farmers and 87 per cent of the total agricultural labour force. Yet, despite their numbers and enormous contribution to the agricultural economy, they remain marginalised from the mainstream. Gender differentiated access to resources and benefits continue to hinder their full participation, even though this is indispensable to lifting food productivity and increasing Malawi’s economic prosperity generally.

There is no doubt that Malawi needs agricultural reforms so as to enhance productivity and food security. There is no doubt either that Government parastatals, such as ADMARC, need to improve their management through reform. But, rather than ensuring that social aims are achieved through accountable government, the IMF/World Bank and other donors have pursued an agenda of austerity, deregulation and privatisation. And when, as in Malawi’s case, there have been disastrous outcomes, they have denied any responsibility. The agenda of good governance and accountability has all too often been abused by donors, using it as leverage to ensure that developing country governments comply with their policies. It must also be applied to the donors themselves.

In addition to policy influence, the donors have insisted that Malawi continue to service its foreign debt at a time when there is widespread hunger. Even after debt reduction under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, debt service still amounts to around 29 percent of Malawi’s Government spending. This heavy burden is further compounding the humanitarian crisis confronting such a poor nation.

The policies that donors have proposed for dealing with the crisis include food aid, but also an IMF loan of US$37 million to purchase maize. Since there is a shortage of grain in southern Africa, Malawi will most likely be forced to purchase grain from the US, including genetically modified grain. In its unmilled form, it will be used by desperate farmers to plant out. Malawi, as has been the case with other countries, will have GM crops introduced by the back door.

If countries in the South are to make any meaningful growth in their economies a new approach in the world economy is needed. The relations between the rich North and the poor South have to be re-defined. African Governments, supported by civil society, must be given the leading role in developing policies for their countries, instead of the IMF/WB dictating policy. Matters of food security and trade policy are fundamentally matters of justice and human rights. It is important therefore that poor countries are given enough space to articulate and implement their own policies, with the support of the international community.

Bad habits like drinking, smoking and overeating that were once the preserve of the rich are taking an increasing hold in developing nations, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday. "While none of these is new, the fact that tobacco, alcohol and cholesterol rank so high in a global survey is a big surprise," Chris Murray, author of the WHO's World Health Report 2002, told Reuters. The report said that in developing countries, 170 million children were malnourished and three million a year were dying as a result. It said HIV/Aids was now the world's fourth- biggest killer, with 40 million people infected worldwide, of whom 70 percent were in Africa.

Demands by a biotech food research and campaigns group for a radical rethink of food relief efforts involving the distribution of transgenic crops have been brushed aside by senior officials of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), at a meeting which ended last Friday in Rome.

Ethiopia and Eritrea are facing severe food shortages that could affect over 15 million people across the two countries. Crops across the region have been devastated by the failure of the first or 'belg' rains and the late arrival of the main rains. This is according to a Catholic relief organisation.

In the Guttmacher Report on Public Policy this month, Alan Guttmacher Institute Director of Government Affairs Susan Cohen examines the success of "ABC"-based HIV/AIDS prevention programs in developing nations. ABC stands for "Abstinence," "Be Faithful" and "use Condoms," and is the HIV/AIDS prevention model supported by UNAIDS and USAID. Cohen writes that although there is "no reason to believe that USAID is currently supporting ABC as anything other than a comprehensive program," the Bush administration's "aggressive support" of abstinence-only sex education in the United States has left some ABC advocates "questioning how long U.S.-supported ABC programs will be allowed to function unfettered."

Universal access to comprehensive health services is needed in developing countries to effectively fight HIV/AIDS, and these services must include HIV prevention, testing and counseling programs; antiretroviral treatment; and diagnosis and treatment of opportunistic infections, according to a study published in the Oct. 26 issue of BMJ.

The three medical associations of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania are in advanced stages of forming an East African body to ensure cross-border disease control among a host of other functions. Uganda Medical Association (UMA), Kenya Medical Association (KMA) and the Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT) are mooting what will be called the Federation of East African Medical Associations (FEAMA).

Law enforcement officials in at least four European countries are making steady progress in an investigation into what they say are schemes in which deeply discounted HIV and AIDS drugs meant for poor and dying patients in Africa were resold in Europe at huge profits.

A cholera outbreak believed to have originated from Tanzania’s border district of Kyela has hit Karonga district, where one person died over the weekend and a total of 15 cases have been reported.

From Karonga comes a warning that, as the rainy season approaches, not only must we prepare for early planting, but also for a running battle with cholera. Already, there have been 15 reported cholera cases in various parts of the district. In fact one of the 15 victims has succumbed to the disease and is no longer with us in this world.

People living with HIV/Aids in Mozambique will now be able to purchase anti-Aids drugs after four types of antiretrovirals went on sale in the private sector last week.