U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Southern Africa

Tel: +27 11 880 4633
Fax: +27 11 880 1421
e-mail: irin-sa@irin.org.za


SOUTHERN AFRICA
IRIN-SA Weekly Round-up 180
29 May - 4 June 2004


CONTENTS:

ANGOLA: Economic recovery plan fails to appease Cabindans
MALAWI: Drop in crop production forecast
BOTSWANA: Grassroots initiative to save the environment
NAMIBIA: US $7.1m World Bank grant for community-based ecosystem project
MOZAMBIQUE-SOUTH AFRICA: Investment climate generally favourable - new 
  report
SOUTH AFRICA: Rural schools neglected says Human Rights Watch
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Weather again jeopardises crop
ZAMBIA: More flood-affected in need of aid
ZIMBABWE: Looming cereal deficits in rural districts
MADAGASCAR: National birth registration campaign launched


ANGOLA: Economic recovery plan fails to appease Cabindans

IRIN reported on Thursday that the unveiling of a socioeconomic recovery
plan for Angola's troubled Cabinda province this week received a lukewarm
response from civil rights groups.

They claimed it was an attempt to divert attention from ongoing government
abuses in the northern enclave.

On Wednesday the Luanda-based government announced it would spend some US
$370 million on economic and social development projects in the province
over the next six years, the official news agency, Angop, reported.

For more than 40 years the oil-rich province has been the site of ongoing
hostilities between government troops and separatists.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41407


Damaged infrastructure and mines hamper humanitarian work

Humanitarian agencies and provincial authorities are set to "pick up the
pace" on road and bridge repairs, as poor infrastructure and landmine
infestation continue to block access to large parts of Angola, IRIN
reported on Tuesday.

These repairs have become the "defining priorities, now that the end of
the rainy season is approaching", said the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its latest situation report on Angola.

Some reconstruction will take longer than was previously expected due to
recent heavy rains.

In the western Benguela province, "roughly 22,000 people are considered
vulnerable in eight areas where humanitarian partners have no access due
to broken bridges, road conditions and the threat of mines in eight
isolated areas".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41365


Efforts to fight widespread TB infection

Also on Tuesday, IRIN focussed on the successes of a tuberculosis (TB)
treatment programme in Camacupa, in Kuito province.

Eleven-year-old Joaquina Francisco was one such success story. Just a
couple of months ago she was weak and wasted as TB wracked her body,
making her young life a misery.

She was one of the first patients at the Camacupa TB programme, set up
last June by the international medical NGO, Medecins sans Frontieres
(MSF). Joaquina was declared cured in February after six months of
directly observed treatment (DOT), which saved her life.

The Camacupa project is an offshoot of the MSF programme that cares for
410 patients and has witnessed dramatic results in Kuito province. "In the
year-and-a-half we have been working here, we have seen the cure rate
double," said Mieke Steenssens, the MSF nurse responsible for TB projects.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41364


MALAWI: Drop in crop production forecast

IRIN reported on Thursday that an expected drop in Malawi's crop
production will negatively affect the food security of households in the
country's southern region.

According to the latest report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network
(FEWS NET), the anticipated maize harvest is now estimated at 1.73 million
mt - 13 percent less than last year's production of 1.98 million mt.

FEWS NET said the second round of national crop assessments "confirmed and
factored into the analysis the late onset of rains and a prolonged dry
spell, which occurred at a critical [crop] development stage, especially
in the southern region. These developments adversely affected production,
lowering initial estimates".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41409


Opposition leaders join ruling party

In a move which analysts say will weaken Malawi's opposition parties, the
third placed candidate in last month's presidential election has announced
that he is to join the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) and drop a
court challenge to the poll.

Gwanda Chakuamba, the opposition Mgwirizano coalition candidate, announced
the surprise move on state radio on Thursday. The Mgwirizano coalition had
recently filed court papers seeking a re-run of the May election.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41425


BOTSWANA: Grassroots initiative to save the environment

Communities hard-hit by environmental degradation in Botswana have begun
to take greater ownership of efforts to halt the depletion of natural
resources, IRIN reported on Thursday.

"It is important that communities feel as if they are involved in the
entire process to rehabilitate the environment. This strengthens
collective efforts and contributes to the success of the process," UN
Development Programme (UNDP) information officer in Botswana, Marx
Garekwe, told IRIN.

Garekwe noted that chronic poverty in remote villages had forced the
population to "over-exploit" resources to meet their immediate needs.

According to UNDP, the project covers steps to conserve the entire
spectrum of local resources, including wildlife, firewood, medicinal
plants and grass for grazing and thatching.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41404


NAMIBIA: US $7.1m World Bank grant for community-based ecosystem project

The World Bank this week approved a US $7.1 million Global Environment
Facility (GEF) grant to Namibia for scaling up community-based ecosystem
management to the benefit of rural people, IRIN reported on Thursday.

The grant is a part of a total amount of US $32.43 million intended for
the project. With contributions from the Namibian government, the French
GEF, USAID, and the German development bank, KfW, making up the balance.

"The project will help conserve and restore ecosystems services in some of
the most critical habitats found on communal lands, while promoting
sustainable use for income generation throughout Namibia's communal
conservancy network, which covers currently some 29 registered
conservancies with 150,000 residents across 75,000 square kilometres," the
World Bank's sector manager for Southern Africa, Rick Scobey, was quoted
as saying in a press release.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41405


MOZAMBIQUE-SOUTH AFRICA: Investment climate generally favourable - new
report

South African businesses in Mozambique continue to see high returns on
their investments, but locals worry that foreign companies are crowding
them out while not creating sustainable jobs, IRIN reported on Wednesday.

According to a recent survey by the South Africa Institute for
International Affairs (SAIIA) Mozambique enjoys some 49 percent of South
African foreign direct investment, the lion's share on the continent.

South African investors controlled three of the four sugar estates, three
of Mozambique's four breweries, all the soft drink bottling plants and
large cereal mills, and most tourism facilities in the country, the report
noted.

However, South African investment in Mozambique, valued at US $1.33
billion, had not necessarily led to sustainable employment opportunities
in the impoverished country.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41385


SOUTH AFRICA: Rural schools neglected says Human Rights Watch

Thousands of rural South African children have been prevented from
receiving an adequate education, a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW)
claimed this week.

The rights group said in a statement on Thursday that farm schools
"provide the only educational opportunity for farm workers' children in
South Africa", yet the government had neglected schools on commercial
farms.

"Rural children attending farm schools should be enjoying the fruits of
South Africa's decade of democracy. Yet the advances made in public
education elsewhere in South Africa have yielded few benefits for children
on commercial farms," Nobuntu Mbelle, a South Africa researcher in Human
Rights Watch's Africa Division, was quoted as saying.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41400


SOUTHERN AFRICA: Weather again jeopardises crop

Southern Africa's crops and food supplies have again been jeopardised by
late and erratic rains followed by floods.

In its latest Food, Crops and Shortages report, the Global Information and
Early Warning System (GIEWS) noted that the "agricultural season is
drawing to a close" in the region, but "the first half of the season was
characterised by delayed, inadequate and erratic rains". The HIV/AIDS
pandemic had compounded food security problems in most of the region's
countries.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41361


SWAZILAND: Rising number of HIV-positive truckers alarms authorities

Swazi authorities and health workers have expressed concern over the
rising rate of HIV infection among the country's truck drivers.

The landlocked southern African country is heavily dependent on road
transport and there are fears that the spread of the virus could have a
serious impact on the economy.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41354


ZAMBIA: More flood-affected in need of aid

A total of 39,277 flood-ravaged Zambian households are in need of 9,547 mt
of cereal for the next four months at least, according to a Vulnerability
Assessment Committee (VAC) report.

It had earlier been estimated that 21,200 people were affected when the
Zambezi burst its western banks after heavy downpours early in the year.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41408


Govt forecasts bumper maize yield

Efforts to bolster agricultural production in Zambia has paid off with the
government forecasting a second successive maize bumper harvest this year.

"We expect official figures from the crop assessment to be released later
in June, but so far it looks as if we will bring in the same quantity of
maize as last year, or slightly better," agriculture permanent secretary,
Nicholas Kwendakwema, told IRIN on Friday.

Zambia produced 1.2 million mt of maize during the 2002/03 farming season
- double the quantity in the previous year. The poor harvest in 2001/02
saw widespread food shortages, with millions of Zambians relying on food
aid to survive.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41427


ZIMBABWE: Looming cereal deficits in rural districts

Cereal deficits are expected in 20 of Zimbabwe's rural districts during
the 2004/05 marketing year, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS
NET) said in its latest food security update.

National cereal availability would be "less of a problem, compared to last
year", due to an anticipated improvement in the maize and small grains
harvest, government cereal stocks of about 200,000 mt (as of 31 March) and
food aid imports since 1 April, as well as "secured food aid in the
pipeline".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41382


Commercial land lies fallow

A number of small, medium and large commercial farms given to black
farmers under Zimbabwe's fast-track land redistribution programme are
lying fallow.

Visits by IRIN to several provinces - Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland
West and Manicaland - revealed that a significant number of the new A2
(commercial) farmers have not been utilising the land allocated to them.

Entire farms appeared neglected, with grass growing in fields that were
once filled with crops. Farming infrastructure was derelict, suggesting
that it had been vandalised.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41352


MADAGASCAR: National birth registration campaign launched

The Madagascar government and aid partners on Friday launched a national
birth registration campaign to secure full rights of citizenship for the
country's children.

About 30 percent of Malagasy children - around 2.5 million - are without a
birth certificate, half of whom are older than five years.

According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) the main reasons these
children remain unregistered vary from the lack of understanding among
parents about the importance of registration, to limited administrative
capacities in some regions.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41426


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:  
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
    Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
                                   guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Southern Africa                  www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/safrica