Some 250 million years ago, all of the earth’s land mass formed one supercontinent, Pangea. On May 10, organizers of Pangea Day, aim to restore connections between far-flung places through the power of story telling, film, and new technologies--allowing individuals to see the world through the eyes of others. The approximately two dozen films being featured in Pangea Day’s 18:00 GMT broadcast – on television, the internet, and mobile phones – will demonstrate the universality of the human experience.

Distributing free anti-HIV drugs in a district of Aids-ravaged Malawi helped cut the death toll by 10 percent within eight months, according to a study published on Saturday by The Lancet. The southern African country introduced free anti-retroviral therapy from 2004, thanks to help from the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and by 2006 the drugs were reaching more than 80 000 patients.

Performance-based contracting in health is an example of an output-based approach to improving health service delivery. In 2003 and 2004 GPOBA supported the design of three output-based aid schemes using performance-based contracting in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. GPOBA’s technical assistance led to three innovative projects funded by the World Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). This note reviews early lessons from these schemes.

When Bishop James Otieno Okombo revealed he was HIV-positive in 1996, his archbishop summarily dismissed him, calling him a sinner and a disgrace to his church. "He [the archbishop] called me before a church leaders' conference and told me to repent; to denounce the sins that led to me getting infected," Okombo told a meeting of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) last week. "They took off my ceremonial attire - the collar, shirt and gown, and the cross - and sent me home."

Oral treatment to improve vaginal health could have the potential to reduce the risk of infection with HIV for women, according to a study published in the May 15th edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Most new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa are among women, for whom new HIV-prevention strategies are needed.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/367/47801farm.jpgIn this open letter to the Secretary General of the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO), Henry Saragih argues that the food price crisis exposes the instability of liberalized agricultural markets and calls for concrete measures that will strengthen peasant and farmer-based food production.

OPEN LETTER To : Mr Jacques Diouf Secretary General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Mr. Yasuo Fukuda, Prime Minister of Japan, President of the G8, Mr. John W. Ashe, Permanent UN representative, Antigua and Barbuda's Permanent and Chairman of the Group of 77

Dear Mr. Diouf, Mr. Fukuda, and Mr. Ashe,

Our movement, La Via Campesina, consists of millions of small farmers and landless workers in more than 60 countries around the world. Although we are the ones producing food for our families and communities, many of us are hungry or living in poverty. Over the last months, the situation has worsened due to the sudden rise in food prices. We are also severely hit by the crisis because many of us do not have enough land to feed our families, and because most producers do not benefit from those high prices. Large traders, speculators, supermarkets and industrial farms are cashing in on and benefitting from this crisis. This current food crisis is the result of many years of deregulation of agricultural markets, the privatization of state regulatory bodies and the dumping of agricultural products on the markets of developing countries. According to the FAO, liberalized markets have attracted huge cash flows that seek to speculate on agricultural products on the “futures” markets and other financial instruments.

The corporate expansion of agrofuels and the initially enthusiastic support for agrofuels in countries such as the US, EU and Brazil have added to the expectation that land for food will become more and more scarce. On top of this in many southern countries hundreds of thousands of hectares are converted from agricultural uses in an uncontrolled way for so-called economic development zones, urbanization and infrastructure. The ongoing land grabbing by Transnational Companies (TNCs) and other speculators will expel millions more peasants who will end up in the mega cities where they will be added to the ranks of the hungry and poor in the slums. Besides this, we may expect especially in Africa and South Asia more severe droughts and floods caused by global climate change. These are severe threats for the rural as well as for the urban areas.

These are highly worrying developments that need active and urgent action! We need a fundamental change in the approach to food production and agricultural markets!

Time to rebuild national food economies!

Rebuilding national food economies will require immediate and long-term political commitments from governments. An absolute priority has to be given to domestic food production in order to decrease dependency on the international market. Peasants and small farmers should be encouraged through better prices for their farm products and stable markets to produce food for themselves and their communities. Landless families from rural and urban areas have to get access to land, seeds and water to produce their own food. This means increased investment in peasant and farmer-based food production for domestic markets.

Governments have to provide financial support for the poorest consumers to allow them to eat. Speculation and extremely high prices forced upon consumers by traders and retailers have to be controlled. Peasants and small farmers need better access to their domestic markets so that they can sell food at fair prices for themselves and for consumers.

Countries need to set up intervention mechanisms aimed at stabilizing market prices. In order to achieve this, import controls with taxes and quotas are needed to avoid low-priced imports which undermine domestic production. National buffer stocks managed by the state have to be built up to stabilize domestic markets: in times of surplus, cereals can be taken from the market to build up the reserve stocks and in case of shortages, cereals can be released.

Regulating international markets and supporting countries to strengthen their food production

At the international level, stabilization measures also have to be undertaken. International buffer stocks have to be built up and an intervention mechanism put in place to stabilize prices on international markets at a reasonable level. Exporting countries have to accept international rules to control the quantities they can bring to the market, in order to stop dumping. The right to implement import controls, set up programs to support the poorest consumers, implement agrarian reform and invest in domestic, farmer peasant-based food production has to be fully respected and supported at the international level.

We ask the FAO, based on its mandate, to take the initiative and create the political environment for a fundamental change in food policies. In the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) a broad majority of governments recognized and agreed on the importance of rural development and agrarian reform to combat poverty and hunger in the rural areas. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), an assessment of the agricultural sector that involved Civil Society organizations, the private sector, and governments as well as the FAO and the World Bank came to the conclusion that corporate-led agriculture and the increasing dependence of peasants and small farmers is at the heart of the problem. They also concluded that peasant, and farmer-based sustainable agriculture has to be supported and strengthened. The International Fund on Agricultural Development (IFAD) also recognizes the key role of peasants and small farmers in the production of food.

We request that G8 governments allow these initiatives to be taken. They should stop the promotion of agrofuels as these are no solution for the climate crisis and add to the destruction of forests. Especially in the southern countries, agrofuels occupy millions of hectares that should remain available for food production.

We also demand that the G8 analyze critically their own agricultural policies, take initiatives to stop the ongoing volatility of the international markets and shift their financial support away from industrial agriculture towards sustainable family farmer-based food production.

We also demand that the G8 stop and cancel any free trade agreements that will only contribute to the destruction of food production in developing countries and block any possibility of autonomous industrial development.

The influence of transnational corporations and financial speculative interests has to be controlled as much as possible and kept away from the the international food market. Food is too important to be left to business alone.

A possible WTO agreement in the Doha Round will mean another blow for peasant-based food production. We demand that the governments of the G77 assess again the WTO negotiations on agriculture in the Doha round and reject any agreement that has negative implications for domestic food production and does not allow the taking of all necessary measures to strengthen food production and increase national self sufficiency.

Peasants and small farmers are the main food producers

La Via Campesina is convinced that peasants and small farmers can feed the world. They have to be the key part of the solution. With sufficient political will and the implementation of adequate policies, more peasants and small farmers, men and women, will easily produce sufficient food to feed the growing population. The current situation shows that changes are needed!

The time for Food Sovereignty has come!

*Henry Saragih is the International Coordinator for La Via Campesina.

**Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

In less than two months, government officials and AIDS activists from around the world will convene in New York to review the global HIV/AIDS response. Based on a review of the reports from Eastern and Southern Africa, the regions worst affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis, experts from UNAIDS have already concluded that despite significant progress in areas such as treatment, many of the UNGASS goals are still far from being reached.

In less than two months, government officials and Aids activists from around the world will convene in New York to review the global HIV and Aids response. National progress reports, submitted earlier this year, will be compared to targets adopted by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV and Aids (UNGASS) in 2001.

The International Task Team on HIV-Related Travel Restrictions has pointed out that HIV-related travel restrictions raise serious human rights concerns, including violations of the principles of equality and non-discrimination, freedom of movement, and the right to privacy.

April 25 has this year been declared World Malaria Day. Since 2001, April 25 has been observed as Africa Malaria Day, commemorating the signing of the historic Abuja Declaration by 44 African malaria-endemic countries at the African Malaria Summit held in 2000. Despite all efforts, malaria continues to be a serious public health concern throughout the world. It affects over 100 countries and approximately 40 per cent of the world's population.

There is a good deal of reason why we should be perturbed with the rather flippant manner in which the Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhre, is treating the issue of the introduction of Genetically Modified Crops (GM crops) into Nigeria's agrarian system. At a two-day round-table meeting with stakeholders on the subject recently, the Minister clearly jumped the gun in announcing that, "the meeting is intended to produce a blueprint for the introduction of Genetically Modified crops into Nigeria.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play an important role in addressing these challenges and uplifting the livelihoods of the rural poor. This article explores the potential contribution of ICT to the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and the efficiency of the agricultural sector in developing countries.

Riots in Haiti over explosive rises in food costs have claimed the lives of six people. There have also been food riots worldwide in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivorie, Egypt, Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. The Economist, which calls the current crisis the silent tsunami, reports that last year wheat prices rose 77 percent and rice 16 percent, but since January rice prices have risen 141 percent.

As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to increase the vulnerability of children, the symposium Children and HIV/AIDS: Action Now, Action How is an urgent call to collective action on behalf of children affected by AIDS. The symposium, jointly hosted by CCABA, The Teresa Group and La Casa de la Sal, will provide a two-day forum on August 1st and 2nd, 2008 at the Hotel Nikko M?xico for information sharing, collaboration and networking in order to strengthen the response to children?s needs.

In the same way that US cotton farm subsidies hurt African cotton farmers by depressing the world market, Bill Quigley argues that by subsidizing its rice farmers, the US has gravely hurt Haitian rice farmers.

Riots in Haiti over explosive rises in food costs have claimed the lives of six people.  There have also been food riots world-wide in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivorie, Egypt, Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

The Economist, which calls the current crisis the silent tsunami, reports that last year wheat prices rose 77% and rice 16%, but since January rice prices have risen 141%. The reasons include rising fuel costs, weather problems, increased demand in China and India, as well as the push to create biofuels from cereal crops.

Hermite Joseph, a mother working in the markets of Port au Prince, told journalist Nick Whalen that her two kids are "like toothpicks - they're not getting enough nourishment.  Before, if you had a dollar twenty-five cents, you could buy vegetables, some rice, 10 cents of charcoal and a little cooking oil. Right now, a little can of rice alone costs 65 cents, and is not good rice at all.  Oil is 25 cents.  Charcoal is 25 cents. With a dollar twenty-five, you can't even make a plate of rice for one child."

The St. Claire's Church Food program, in the Tiplas Kazo neighborhood of Port au Prince, serves 1000 free meals a day, almost all to hungry children - five times a week in partnership with the What If Foundation.  Children from Cite Soleil have been known to walk the five miles to the church for a meal. The cost of rice, beans, vegetables, a little meat, spices, cooking oil, propane for the stoves, have gone up dramatically. Because of the rise in the cost of food, the portions are now smaller.  But hunger is on the rise and more and more children come for the free meal.  Hungry adults used to be allowed to eat the leftovers once all the children were fed, but now there are few leftovers.

The New York Times lectured Haiti on April 18 that "Haiti, its agriculture industry in shambles, needs to better feed itself." Unfortunately, the article did not talk at all about one of the main causes of the shortages - the fact that the U.S. and other international financial bodies destroyed Haitian rice farmers to create a major market for the heavily subsidized rice from U.S. farmers.  This is not the only cause of hunger in Haiti and other poor countries, but it is a major force.

Thirty years ago, Haiti raised nearly all the rice it needed. What happened?

In 1986, after the expulsion of Haitian dictator Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loaned Haiti $24.6 million in desperately needed funds (Baby Doc had raided the treasury on the way out). But, in order to get the IMF loan, Haiti was required to reduce tariff protections for their Haitian rice and other agricultural products and some industries to open up the country's markets to competition from outside countries.  The U.S. has by far the largest voice in decisions of the IMF.

Doctor Paul Farmer was in Haiti then and saw what happened. "Within less than two years, it became impossible for Haitian farmers to compete with what they called 'Miami rice.'  The whole local rice market in Haiti fell apart as cheap, U.S. subsidized rice, some of it in the form of 'food aid,' flooded the market. There was violence, 'rice wars,' and lives were lost."

"American rice invaded the country," recalled Charles Suffrard, a leading rice grower in Haiti in an interview with the Washington Post in 2000.  By 1987 and 1988, there was so much rice coming into the country that many stopped working the land.

Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, a Haitian priest who has been the pastor at St. Claire and an outspoken human rights advocate, agrees.  "In the 1980s, imported rice poured into Haiti, below the cost of what our farmers could produce it.  Farmers lost their businesses.  People from the countryside started losing their jobs and moving to the cities.  After a few years of cheap imported rice, local production went way down."

Still the international business community was not satisfied. In 1994, as a condition for U.S. assistance in returning to Haiti to resume his elected Presidency, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced by the U.S., the IMF, and the World Bank to open up the markets in Haiti even more.

But, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, what reason could the U.S. have in destroying the rice market of this tiny country?

Haiti is definitely poor.  The U.S. Agency for International Development reports the annual per capita income is less than $400.   The United Nations reports life expectancy in Haiti is 59, while in the US it is 78.  Over 78% of Haitians live on less than $2 a day, more than half live on less than $1 a day.

Yet Haiti has become one of the very top importers of rice from the U.S.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture 2008 numbers show Haiti is the third largest importer of US rice - at over 240,000 metric tons of rice. (One metric ton is 2200 pounds).

Rice is a heavily subsidized business in the U.S.  Rice subsidies in the U.S. totaled $11 billion from 1995 to 2006.  One producer alone, Riceland Foods Inc of Stuttgart Arkansas, received over $500 million dollars in rice subsidies between 1995 and 2006.

The Cato Institute recently reported that rice is one of the most heavily supported commodities in the U.S. - with three different subsidies together averaging over $1 billion a year since 1998 and projected to average over $700 million a year through 2015. The result?  "Tens of millions of rice farmers in poor countries find it hard to lift their families out of poverty because of the lower, more volatile prices caused by the interventionist policies of other countries."

In addition to three different subsidies for rice farmers in the U.S., there are also direct tariff barriers of 3 to 24 percent, reports Daniel Griswold of the Cato Institute - the exact same type of protections, though much higher, that the U.S. and the IMF required Haiti to eliminate in the 1980s and 1990s.

U.S. protection for rice farmers goes even further. A 2006 story in the Washington Post found that the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all; including $490,000 to a Houston surgeon who owned land near Houston that once grew rice.

And it is not only the Haitian rice farmers who have been hurt.

Paul Farmer saw it happen to the sugar growers as well.  "Haiti, once the world's largest exporter of sugar and other tropical produce to Europe, began importing even sugar-- from U.S. controlled sugar production in the Dominican Republic and Florida.  It was terrible to see Haitian farmers put out of work.  All this sped up the downward spiral that led to this month's food riots."

After the riots and protests, President Rene Preval of Haiti agreed to reduce the price of rice, which was selling for $51 for a 110 pound bag, to $43 dollars for the next month.   No one thinks a one month fix will do anything but delay the severe hunger pains a few weeks.

Haiti is far from alone in this crisis.  The Economist reports a billion people worldwide live on $1 a day.  The US-backed Voice of America reports about 850 million people were suffering from hunger worldwide before the latest round of price increases.

Thirty three countries are at risk of social upheaval because of rising food prices, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told the Wall Street Journal.  When countries have many people who spend half to three-quarters of their daily income on food, "there is no margin of survival."

In the U.S., people are feeling the world-wide problems at the gas pump and in the grocery.  Middle class people may cut back on extra trips or on high price cuts of meat.  The number of people on food stamps in the US is at an all-time high. But in poor countries, where malnutrition and hunger were widespread before the rise in prices, there is nothing to cut back on except eating.  That leads to hunger riots.

In the short term, the world community is sending bags of rice to Haiti.  Venezuela sent 350 tons of food.  The US just pledged $200 million extra for worldwide hunger relief.  The UN is committed to distributing more food.

What can be done in the medium term?  The US provides much of the world's food aid, but does it in such a way that only half of the dollars spent actually reach hungry people.   US law requires that food aid be purchased from US farmers, processed and bagged in the US and shipped on US vessels - which cost 50% of the money allocated.  A simple change in US law to allow some local purchase of commodities would feed many more people and support local farm markets.

In the long run, what is to be done? The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who visited Haiti last week, said "Rich countries need to reduce farms subsidies and trade barriers to allow poor countries to generate income with food exports.  Either the world solves the unfair trade system, or every time there's unrest like in Haiti, we adopt emergency measures and send a little bit of food to temporarily ease hunger."

Citizens of the USA know very little about the role of their government in helping create the hunger problems in Haiti or other countries.  But there is much that individuals can do.  People can donate to help feed individual hungry people and participate with advocacy organizations like Bread for the World or Oxfam to help change the U.S. and global rules which favor the rich countries.  This advocacy can help countries have a better chance to feed themselves.

Meanwhile, Merisma Jean-Claudel, a young high school graduate in Port-au-Prince told journalist Wadner Pierre "...people can't buy food. Gasoline prices are going up. It is very hard for us over here. The cost of living is the biggest worry for us, no peace in stomach means no peace in the mind.I wonder if others will be able to survive the days ahead because things are very, very hard."

"On the ground, people are very hungry," reported Fr. Jean-Juste.  "Our country must immediately open emergency canteens to feed the hungry until we can get them jobs.  For the long run, we need to invest in irrigation, transportation, and other assistance for our farmers and workers."

In Port au Prince, some rice arrived in the last few days.  A school in Fr. Jean-Juste's parish received several bags of rice.  They had raw rice for 1000 children, but the principal still had to come to Father Jean-Juste asking for help.  There was no money for charcoal, or oil.

Jervais Rodman, an unemployed carpenter with three children, stood in a long line Saturday in Port au Prince to get UN donated rice and beans.  When Rodman got the small bags, he told Ben Fox of the Associated Press, "The beans might last four days.  The rice will be gone as soon as I get home."

*Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. People who want to help change U.S. policy on agriculture to help combat world-wide hunger should go to: or http://www.bread.org/

**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

In a tiny recording studio in the southern Sudanese capital, Juba, Patrick Taban's phone rings off the hook, but he pays it no attention - he's too wrapped up in his preparations for a big production later that evening. Taban heads The Heavens, a drama and musical group of 14 members whose performances rotate largely around church music and social issues, including HIV/AIDS.

Investment in health systems — not just in specific health intervention projects — is key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on maternal and child health, say experts. The 'Countdown to 2015' initiative — which tracks progress in reducing child and maternal deaths under the MDGs — cites Tanzania as an example of a country that manages its health investment well.

Rising food prices and their threat to political stability and development gains captured the attention of world economic leaders meeting here, with a call to arms launched by the World Bank. The issue steadily gained prominence during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings over the weekend that mainly were focused on the unfolding global financial turmoil and deteriorating economic growth prospects.

With the gradual return of peace across Kenya, the AMREF clinic in the heart of the sprawling Kibera slums has in February recorded an over 400% increase in patient numbers over the previous month as patients can now freely access the facility. Patients trooping to the Kibera Community Based Health Centre are on the rise as calm returns to the Nairobi city slum that was severely ravaged by the post-election violence that erupted across the country.

African Monitor Founder and President, Archbishop Njongo Ndungane, this morning reiterated the important work of the Global Fund in fighting HIV and AIDS, TB and Malaria and called on donors to provide resources necessary for the Fund to meet its objectives. He was opening a workshop to scale up the involvement of the Faith-Based Organizations in the Global Fund, held in Tanzania.