Cholera can rapidly lead to severe dehydration and death if left untreated. Oral rehydration salts (ORS) can successfully treat 80% of cholera patients - both adults and children –and should be given early at home to avert delays in rehydration and improve survival. WHO outlines in the report that it does not see any contradiction in making ORS packages available to households and non-medical personnel outside health care facilities. In contrast, making ORS available at household and community levels can avert unnecessary deaths and contributes to diminishing case fatality rates, particularly in resource-poor settings. Providing nutritious food as well as continuing breastfeeding for infants and young children should continue simultaneously with administering appropriate fluids or ORS.
Poverty and health
Civil society is calling on the Tanzanian government and agri-business for a frank discussion on the objectives and benefits of the ongoing Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (Sagcot) project, which forms part of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra). Agra is considered by activists fighting poverty as a means to destroy small-scale farming in Africa and introduce large-scale, mechanised agriculture producing genetically modified crops, with disastrous results for food security on the continent. Critics argue that the government’s version of green revolution is fundamentally flawed, as it seeks the participation of large-scale, mostly foreign, investors, while conveniently ignoring the fact that agriculture in the country is overwhelmingly small-scale, sustaining about 80% of the population. The fate of these farmers is uncertain. As the implementation of most of these projects also seems complex, lacks transparency and raises accusations of land grabbing, civil society organisations are also calling on coordinators of the project to explain the nature of partnership with key international partners, some of whom have controversial commercial and agricultural undertakings. The ensuing discussions should address issues such as how local societies will be key players in farming, technological advancement and value addition.
During his three-day visit from 16-19 December 2008, Dr Sambo held discussions with national authorities and partners on ways and means of bringing an end to the spread of the cholera epidemic. Dr Sambo advised that beyond cholera, other specific health problems may become worse if the key social and economic determinants of health are not urgently improved. He highlighted the importance of inter-sectoral approach in the prevention of cholera and reached agreement with the Minister of Health to establish the Cholera Command and Control Centre, jointly operated by WHO and the Ministry of Health of Zimbabwe, to coordinate and boost the country’s capacity to manage the response particularly in the areas of disease surveillance, case management, water and sanitation, social mobilisation and logistics.
Is job creation really the best way to seek wellbeing for all in countries with chronic, high unemployment? No, according to the author of this article, especially not in a wealthy middle-income country like South Africa, where very high unemployment combines with high poverty rates. A universal income grant, he argues, makes much more sense. He points out that earning a decent secure wage is not a prospect for millions of South Africans, especially with the global economic crisis having hit the country and unemployment standing at 35%. Having a job does not automatically prevent poverty, as most workers earn very low wages and have minimal labour protection, a situation exacerbated by the shift towards the use of casual and outsourced labour and the related decline in real wages for low-skilled workers. Although the current social grant system separates millions from destitution, he notes that it is ill-suited to today’s realities, as it hinges on the fiction that every worker, sooner or later, will find a decent job. In addition, targeted and means-tested social protection is burdensome, costly and humiliating. The author argues that a universal income is developmental and would boost wellbeing and health, referring to studies that show reduced stunting in children, better nutrition levels and greater school enrolment. He notes that a universal grant as small as US$12 per month could close South Africa’s poverty gap by 74% and lift about six million people above a poverty line of US$50 per month.
The mandate of most international donors is to reduce poverty, suffering and inequity. Addressing child undernutrition falls within this. However, current donor investment to directly address undernutrition is estimated to be well under half of the resources required. Encouragingly, some new initiatives to increase investment and improve coordination are already underway. Several international agencies are working together to develop a Ten Year Strategy to reduce vitamin and mineral deficiencies. These include the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Academy for Educational Development and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). They have completed a technical situation analysis (published in the Food and Nutrition Bulletin) and formed working groups to better coordinate their actions, including monitoring and evaluation activities.
The political foundations of poverty are all too often ignored by poverty analysts. This paper presents, from a political-economy perspective, a critique of mainstream poverty analysis. The author argues that the way mainstream research considers poverty separates it from the social processes of the accumulation and distribution of wealth. This serves to depoliticise poverty, as it becomes a kind of a social abnormality, rather than the reality of modern state and market society functions.
Governments, civil society and the private sector have been urged to partner with rural women's organisations in order to help the women participate meaningfully in the economy. In a declaration following the 4th World Congress of Rural Women (WCRW), rural women said this partnership was critical for addressing unemployment and hunger as a central focus on development. They said the partnership was also important to undertake the necessary measures to give them full and equal access to productive resources, including ownership of land and other property. The issues of access to credit, start-up capital for emerging businesses, skills development and access to markets for emerging businesses also came across as urgent matters of concern in the declaration.
As African farmers experience escalating anxiety over the appropriation and control of land, seeds and farming techniques by foreign governments and corporations, the multi-million dollar Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa – a Gates Foundation-funded initiative – promises to increase food production and defeat poverty in Africa by implementing vigorous Western-style agricultural techniques and genetically modified crops. Modelled on the previous Green Revolutions of Latin America and the Indian sub-continent, the African Green Revolution should heed the environmental devastation these previous experiments in agriculture have wrought, the author of this article cautions, such as seriously depleted water tables and impoverished soil. Although new seeds and tools may bring higher production in the short term, some Africans are concerned about the consolidated control that foreign corporations will exercise over food supply, as well as the precarious dependence on large amounts of water and energy inputs, and the environmental toll such methods may eventually take. A growing movement of local farmers – largely led by women – argues that the surest path to food security is ensuring food sovereignty. The article points to a number of international organisations and alliances, like Via Campesina and Groundswell International, which advocate for community-level control over food production. These organisations target primarily women farmers who, according to the article, are responsible for up to 70% of food production in the developing world. The author asserts that supporting small-scale women farmers is crucial to ensuring food sovereignty in poor countries.
Born 1994, Tshepo Jamillah Moyo (TJ) is an unapologetic black Pan African Inter-sectional Feminist performance artist. Her work centres on the exploration of black African womanhood. In this conversation, she discusses her provocation at a recent march in Botswana on the 3rd of June where human rights and gender activists, and fellow women marched in the RIGHT TO WEAR WHAT I WANT walk, which aimed to highlight that no one has the right to violate another human being based on what they are wearing. Moyo argues that there is a need for an intersectional feminism that thinks about every single woman, and all the intersections of her life where oppression derives from.
According to this book, the abuse of alcohol has drastic consequences on the safety and health outcomes of nations. Road accidents, family and sexual violence and homicide and foetal alcohol syndrome, are some of the occurrences where alcohol tends to have a direct role. Working Together to Reduce Harmful Drinking contains nine chapters written by experts in the alcohol industry, government and academia. It seeks to contribute to a global strategy to reduce irresponsible and harmful alcohol consumption and its attendant risks.