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 385
21 - 25 July 2008


CONTENTS:

SOUTHERN AFRICA: New money to mitigate disaster
GLOBAL: Humanitarian futures (part two) - "the crisis of
   humanitarianism"
GLOBAL: Humanitarian futures (part one) - "exponential complexity"
MADAGASCAR: Ambitious family planning goals
ZIMBABWE: Humanitarian organisations remain out in the cold
ZAMBIA: Mary Muyunda, "The school should be a safe place for all the pupils"
AFRICA: Homophobia fuelling the spread of HIV
ZIMBABWE: A nation of billionaires
ZIMBABWE: Public downbeat about political agreement
ZIMBABWE: Memorandum of understanding signed by rivals


SOUTHERN AFRICA: New money to mitigate disaster

In an effort to mitigate the negative impact of climate change, new
funding by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO)
will help bolster disaster risk reduction and community resilience in
Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawi and the Comoros. A statement released on
23 July said the EC had extended the scope of its disaster preparedness
programme (DIPECHO) with a new allocation of ?5 million (US$7.8 million)
for the four southern African countries.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79436


GLOBAL: Humanitarian futures (part two) - "the crisis of
humanitarianism"

The global humanitarian enterprise could lose touch with the needs of
its beneficiaries because of political and security priorities,
especially the "war on terror", according to a new report. This can be
seen directly in the effect of the war on terror on humanitarian
responses in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in a spill-over effect in Africa,
according to Humanitarian Agenda 2015 (HA2015), produced by an
interdisciplinary team from the Feinstein International Centre (FIC) of
Tufts University in the USA.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79437


GLOBAL: Humanitarian futures (part one) - "exponential complexity"

It's the year 2018. A massive crisis combining drought, huge migrations
and urban desperation is devastating the Horn of Africa, and there's
little in the way of safety nets. Meanwhile, a major earthquake on the
San Andreas Fault has hammered California. US government agencies and
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are already overstretched. But
thanks to contingency planning that began a decade earlier, a network is
in place to aid the Horn, beefed up through innovation and new actors.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79426


MADAGASCAR: Ambitious family planning goals

Being an exhausted mother of 10 children by your early thirties is not
unusual in rural Madagascar, but a movement is now underway to try and
provide women with a contraceptive choice. "I often get women in the
clinic who have had eight or more children and are desperate to stop,"
said nurse Rebecca Hill, who has been running a family planning clinic
in Andavadoaka, a remote village in southwest Madagascar. "They are all
too pleased to have a break, and family planning can allow that to
happen. But there is a huge unmet need for these facilities here, and
that needs to change."

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79413


ZIMBABWE: Humanitarian organisations remain out in the cold

The expectation that the ban on humanitarian organisations operating in
Zimbabwe would be lifted after an agreement between rival political
parties was signed, was misplaced, the country director of the Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, George Tadonki, told IRIN.
President Robert Mugabe's government suspended the work of all
humanitarian organisations on 28 May, after accusing them of engaging in
political activities.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79411


ZAMBIA: Mary Muyunda, "The school should be a safe place for all the
pupils"

In a landmark ruling on 15 July, the High Court in Lusaka, capital of
Zambia, ordered the government to pay about US$13,000 compensation to a
15-year-old school girl raped by her class teacher. Mary Muyunda (not
her real name) brought a civil action against the teacher, the school
and the minister of education. The judge also ordered that the Director
of Public Prosecutions commence criminal proceedings against the
teacher, as the evidence of rape was "overwhelming". The teacher was
arrested, but subsequently released on bail. Often breaking down with
emotion, she told IRIN her story.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79400


AFRICA: Homophobia fuelling the spread of HIV

The persistent and increasing outbreaks of violence against members of
the gay community in Africa are jeopardising efforts to combat HIV in
this group, and across the population as a whole, AIDS activists warned
at a recent meeting in Limbe, Cameroon. The extreme vulnerability of
members of the continent's gay community to HIV was highlighted during
the meeting initiated by the French non-governmental organisation,
AIDES, and its partners, which took place at the beginning of July in
southwest Cameroon and brought together many AIDS activists from
Francophone African countries.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79397


ZIMBABWE: A nation of billionaires

Where in the world could you be a multi-billionaire and still go hungry?
The answer is, of course, Zimbabwe. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
has fixed the daily withdrawal limit at Z$100 billion (roughly US$1.25)
a day for individuals, but that comes nowhere near to covering the
day-to-day costs of people living in the most inflationary environment
in the world.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79381


ZIMBABWE: Public downbeat about political agreement

An agreement between Zimbabwe's political parties to pursue negotiations
to establish a new constitution and bring an end to political violence
has been met with scepticism by ordinary Zimbabweans trying to survive
the country's 2.2 million percent annual inflation rate. As news spread
of the deal, widely seen as a ground-breaking initiative, people in
Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, responded to the images of Tsvangirai and
Mugabe shaking hands at signing ceremony with a mixture of disgust,
disbelief and indifference.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79384


ZIMBABWE: Memorandum of understanding signed by rivals

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, and opposition leaders Morgan
Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, signed a memorandum of understanding in
the capital, Harare, on 21 July, paving the way for talks to resolve the
country's political impasse. South African President Thabo Mbeki,
appointed last year by the Southern African Development Community to
mediate in the crisis, presided over the ceremony at a Harare hotel. The
memorandum "commits the negotiating parties to an intense programme of
work to try and finalise the negotiations as quickly as possible," Mbeki
reportedly said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79363


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