Earth Grab analyses how Northern governments and corporations are cynically using growing concerns about the ecological and climate crisis to propose geoengineering 'quick fixes'. These threaten to wreak havoc on ecosystems, with disastrous impacts on the people of the global South. As calls for a 'greener' economy mount and oil prices escalate, corporations are seeking to switch from oil-based to plant-based energy. The book exposes how a biomass economy based on using gene technologies to reprogramme living organisms to behave as microbial factories will facilitate the liquidation of ecosystems. This constitutes a devastating assault of the peoples and cultures of the South, accelerating the wave of land grabs that are becoming common in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It also shows how the world’s largest agribusiness companies including Monsanto, BASF, Dupont and Syngenta are pouring billions of dollars into, and claiming patents on, what are claimed to be 'climate-ready crops'. Far from helping farmers adjust to a warming world – something peasant farmers already know how to manage – these crops will allow industrial agriculture to expand plantation monocultures into lands currently cultivated by poor peasant farmers. These crops are not a solution to growing hunger, they will feed only the gluttony of corporate shareholders for profits.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Starting July 2010, there will be free movement of people, labour and services across the East Africa Community (EAC). This follows the conclusion of the Common Market Protocol negotiations at the end of September. The heads of delegations of the five partner states signed the final draft protocol bringing to a close 18 months of intense haggling among the states. Each of the five states of Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda had to cede ground or compromise for a deal to be reached. One area of contention that was referred from the April meeting in Kampala was the issue on permanent residence. A main issue was how many years can elapse before someone is eligible to enjoy permanent residence in another country. This decision will now be based on national laws. The other unfinished business was on use of identity cards across member states, right of establishment and the movement of people and workers.
How to foster agricultural development and food security in East Africa as the effects of climate change become more serious is the subject of the study East African Agriculture and Climate Change: A Comprehensive Analysis. The authors develop several weather-based scenarios for how climate change might affect countries in the region between now and 2050. National contributors from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda review the scenario results for their countries and propose a variety of policies to counter the effects of climate change on agriculture and food security. These policies include greater investment in agricultural research and extension, equitable access to land and inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, expanded irrigation, and improved infrastructure.
The author of this article asserts that East African countries risk not attaining the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on universal treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases if the region’s parliament adopts the draft anti-counterfeit laws currently under consideration. Civil society representatives, government officials and intellectual property experts have warned that the region would not meet this MDG if it adopted the proposed policy and bill, as they would block the production and importation of generic medicines used by health care services to treat diseases. The countries affected are Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya. The draft laws could erode recent gains in scaling up treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS, according to Tenu Avafia, policy specialist on intellectual property, trade and HIV and AIDS at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The East African Community (EAC) modeled on the EU has enormous potential and resources. Resolving political differences and harmonizing with other regional blocks remains the foremost challenges. The East African Community (EAC) heads of state are due to sign a monetary union paving a way for a single currency for Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and those other countries that will join the community later on. The benefits of monetary union include a single currency; low transaction costs for business people; tuition and visa fees of the same value in all the countries; amongst others. The author explores the geopolitical, demographic and resource potentials for the east African community. The paper also argues that there is no single formula for regional integration. Rather than being competitors, the various regional blocks provide avenues for more complex and beneficial collaboration in the continent.
Studies were carried out in Krugersdorp, South Africa, to evaluate the ecological and human health risks associated with exposure to metals and metalloids in contaminated soils in mine tailings from gold mining. Human health risk was assessed using Hazard Quotient (HQ), Chronic Hazard Index (CHI) and carcinogenic risk levels, where values of HQ > 1, CHI > 1 and carcinogenic risk values > 1×10−4 represent elevated risks. Values for HQ indicated high exposure-related risk for arsenic, chromium, nickel, zinc and manganese. Children were more at risk from heavy metal and metalloid exposure than adults. Cancer-related risks associated with metal and metalloid exposure among children were also higher than in adults. The authors identify that there is significant potential ecological and human health risk associated with metal and metalloid exposure from contaminated soils around gold mine tailings dumps. They note that this could be a potential contributing factor to poor health of residents in informal settlements in the mining area, particularly for those whose immune systems are already compromised by HIV.
According to this paper, environmental risks arise largely from unsustainable development policies related to the use of water and land resources, transportation and energy. The health impacts of environmental pollution and ecosystem degradation disproportionately affect the disadvantaged and vulnerable socioeconomic groups, such as children, the rural and urban poor, and informal-sector workers. Economic, institutional, political and social factors present barriers to more sustainable environment and health policies, while macroeconomic considerations tend to be the major drivers of policy-making on the continent. Health ministry policies are generally focused on health care services and may not systematically address the related broader environment and development agendas. Environment ministries are often newer entities, and lack the power or resources to steer government investments towards sustainable development. African countries need to be able to monitor, prevent or mitigate risks that might develop into full-scale environmental and health crises.
The Economic Development in Africa Report 2010 examines recent trends in the economic relationships of Africa with other developing countries and the new forms of partnership that are animating those relationships. It discusses the variety of institutional arrangements that are guiding and encouraging these new economic relationships, provides up-to-date information on African trade with other developing countries outside Africa, describes official financial flows and foreign direct investment into Africa from those countries and assesses important policy issues that arise from the new relationships in each of these areas. The report argues that South–South cooperation opens new opportunities for Africa, and the main challenge facing African countries is how to harness these new relationships more effectively to further their long-term development goals. It also stresses the need to broaden the country and sectoral focus of cooperation with the South to ensure that the gains are better distributed across countries. It argues that South–South cooperation should be seen as a complement rather than a substitute for relations with traditional partners, and that the latter can make South–South cooperation work for Africa by strengthening support for triangular co-operation as well as through better dialogue with developing country partners.
This report contends that Africa should not follow the same ‘grow now, clean up later’ approach that was adopted by currently industrialised countries. The continent should instead pursue a different path that reconciles economic growth with environmental sustainability. The report urges African governments to shift from traditional to modern, less-polluting energy sources, wherever these energy sources are economically and environmentally viable, and to promote a shift to organic agriculture to ensure environmentally sustainable increases in harvests, to bring higher prices to farmers and to keep rural populations engaged in farming rather than migrating to the cities. The report calls for developed countries to increase financial assistance to Africa, but emphasises that equally important will be greater technology transfer from developed and emerging countries to Africa, increased South-South cooperation in green technology use and adaptation, and more flexibilities in the design of the global intellectual property rights regime. More "policy space" will be needed for African governments so that they have the ability to use incoming funds and technology in the most efficient way for their specific circumstances. Each African country will have to design strategies and policies based on its own sectoral and resource priorities, environmental challenges, initial conditions and domestic capabilities. Countries that are already embarked on that path in Africa include Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa.
The Society for International Development (SID)'s triennial World Congress, which concluded on 31 July 2011 in Washington, United States, drew over 1,000 attendees. According to the United Nations Development Programme, which attended the event, the emergence of new paths to development has grown along with the rise of middle- and low-income countries. However much of this growth has not been inclusive. A spokesperson for the UN Development Programme noted at the meeting that the empowerment of women was essential to the solid development of global international economies, a sentiment echoed by many others at the congress. Although 40% of participants were from the global South, one of the speakers, Sanjay Reddy expressed disappointment that the meeting was dominated by Northern development professionals, in particular those who appear to be engaged in for- profit contracting to execute development projects on behalf of organisations such as USAID. Reddy added that, if genuine grassroots development were to take place, SID should return to its original role of facilitating discussions between diverse groups, including voices that call for radically alternative methods to the current neoliberal agenda.