Weekly Round-Up - IRINWA-385: 20-Jul-07
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 West Africa
Tel: +225 22-40-4440
Fax: +225 22-41-9339
e-mail: irin-wa@irin.ci
WEST AFRICA
IRIN-WA Weekly Round-Up 385
16-20 July 2007
CONTENTS:
COTE D'IVOIRE: Top UN election monitor eliminated
WEST AFRICA: New evidence democracy reduces corruption
COTE D'IVOIRE: Impact of terminating top UN election monitor post -
analysis
LIBERIA: Too few rice seeds to sow
COTE D'IVOIRE: Return to peace means return to health care fees
SENEGAL: Primary schools grapple with digital technology
COTE D'IVOIRE: Top UN election monitor eliminated
Two months after President Laurent Gbagbo demanded the removal of the UN
High Representative for Elections, the Security Council passed a
resolution on 16 July that terminated the post."The UN will still
certify the elections and this is what has been paramount for us," a
Western diplomat who speaks only on condition of anonymity told IRIN.
The responsibilities for overseeing the election process will now go to
the special representative for the UN Secretary General (SRSG). The
acting SRSG is Abou Moussa. Officials with the UN Mission in Cote
d'Ivoire (UNOCI) reached by IRIN on 16 July would not comment on the
qualitative difference between retaining the post of High Representative
for Elections and transferring its functions to the SRSG's office. UNOCI
spokesman Hamadoun Toure said the SRSG will set up a special technical
unit for certifying the stages of the elections process.
ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73261
WEST AFRICA: New evidence democracy reduces corruption
West African countries which have made gains in democracy, such as
Ghana, Liberia and Niger, also appear to have reined in corruption,
according to a 10 July 2007 World Bank report. "Countries that have
undergone a democratic transition have much lower cases of corruption
than other countries," Edouard Al-Dahdah, operations officer at the
World Bank Institute, which produced the report, told IRIN. Corruption
raises the cost of building infrastructure in countries by up to 20
percent, leaving the state with less money to spend on public services,
Mouhamadou Mbodj, coordinator of Forum Civil, the Senegalese chapter of
global anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, told
IRIN. African youth continue to see corruption as their best hope of
advancing, Mbodj said. Democracy also suffers when corrupt politicians
attempt to buy votes. Yet democracy provides mechanisms by which to
fight corruption, such as a free press to air allegations of corruption
and the right of citizens to go to the streets to protest the
questionable actions of officials, Al-Dahdah, of the World Bank, said.
ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73273
COTE D'IVOIRE: Impact of terminating top UN election monitor post -
analysis
Most observers agree that the UN Security Council's 16 July resolution
eliminating the senior UN election monitoring post in Cote d'Ivoire was
a concession to President Laurent Gbagbo who in May demanded the removal
of Gerard Stoudmann, the man who had held the position. However,
observers are more divided over whether the move dooms the electoral
process. "Getting rid of the High Representative for Elections is only
part of the story," said one Western diplomat who spoke to IRIN but did
not want to be identified. "The full story is we're getting rid of the
post but not its responsibilities." The 16 July resolution transfers the
functions of the High Representative for Elections to the permanent
Special Representative to UN Secretary-General (SRSG), head of the UN
peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI). The resolution states:
"[The SRSG] shall certify that all stages of the electoral process
provide all the necessary guarantees for the holding of open, free, fair
and transparent presidential and legislative elections in accordance
with international standards."
ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73297
LIBERIA: Too few rice seeds to sow
The difficulty in acquiring seed rice during the current planting season
is having a negative effect on rice farming in rural Liberia where there
has been a massive return of former internally displaced persons and
refugees, agriculture officials told IRIN. "One major problem affecting
rice farming in Liberia after years of conflict is the availability of
seed rice. Most often the seeds do not reach the farmers in time because
we had to import them, since we are not producing them here", Liberia's
Agriculture Minister Chris Toe said. Toe said farmers should normally
receive seed rice in February ahead of the rainy season. "But because
farmers receive the seed rice in June or July at the start of the rainy
season, they find it difficult to plant during this period and, as a
result, rice production is now on a lower scale", Toe said. Rice is the
staple diet in Liberia. However, rice planting is most commonly left to
local farmers. Agriculture Ministry statistics indicate there is heavy
reliance on small-scale subsistence farmers.
ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73328
COTE D'IVOIRE: Return to peace means return to health care fees
As Cote d'Ivoire's peace process creeps forward and emergency health
care providers start withdrawing, the government is beginning to provide
medical care again and that will mean reintroducing fees. "[In conflict
zones] communities benefited from free health care," Jean Denoman,
deputy director general at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN. "Now the
communities will have a difficult time paying." For proponents of
universal free health care a return to full health care costs will
penalise the poor. The World Bank and some donors have long argued the
merits of user fees for basic health and education, while many aid
groups argue that user fees deprive a major portion of the population of
basic services and severely diminish standards of living. In public
hospitals in Man and Bouake, Medecins Sans Frontieres began providing
free health care services after rebels took over the cities in 2002 and
government-paid doctors and nurses fled for their lives. But with
efforts toward peace advancing, health workers have started returning to
the region. MSF pulled out of Bouake public hospital in May and the Man
public hospital in July.
ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73329
SENEGAL: Primary schools grapple with digital technology
In the poor fishing neighbourhood of Medina in the Senegalese capital,
Dakar, a small school sits wedged between a run-down cemetery and a
craft market. Piles of rubbish line a sandy alleyway that leads to the
school's front gate. The school walls are stained; desks are cracked and
dusty. Yet among the dirt and disorder of one classroom, six shiny
flat-screen computers line one side. They are seemingly out of place. At
one computer ten-year-old Amadou Diallo is fighting off his classmates
to be the one to turn it on. Amadou is in grade 4, and had never used a
computer until 10 appeared in his elementary school library. Now, he
uses a computer five hours a week.
ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73348
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