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Biruk Girma, Addis Ababa
East African integration is crucial to successfully attain the UN-set Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Ethiopian State Minister of Finance and Economic Development said on Monday.
In his opening speech to the 12th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) which kicked off here at the UNCC, State Minister Mekonnen said the issue of integration was of a high priority as far as Ethiopia was concerned.
He said the country was content the issue was in spotlight at the regional meeting.
“Topical issues of financial sector reforms, regional integration, NEPAD All these are topics of great concern to the sub region,” he told participants who come from 13 Sub-Regional offices for Eastern Africa (SRO-EA) member countries of the UNECA.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world’s main development challenges.
They are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations-and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.
Africa’s longstanding recognition of the needs and benefits of regional integration has spawned the proliferation of regional economies and protocols across the continent, according to ECA.
The 12th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts (ICE) which will deliberate on the integration of the east African region with...

By BAN KI-MOON
The price of food is soaring. The threat of hunger and malnutrition is growing. Millions of the world’s most vulnerable people are at risk. An effective and urgent response is needed.
The first of the Millennium Development Goals, set by world leaders at the United Nations summit in 2000, aims to cut the number of hungry people in half by 2015. This already was a major challenge, not least in Africa where many nations have fallen behind. But we now face a perfect storm of new challenges. The prices of basic staples - wheat, corn, rice - are at record highs, up 50% or more in the last six months. Global food stocks are at historic lows. The causes range from rising demand in major economies like India and China to climate and weather-related events such as hurricanes, floods and droughts that have devastated harvests in many parts of the world. High oil prices have increased the cost of transporting food and purchasing fertilizer. Some experts say the rise of biofuels has reduced the amount of food available for humans. The effects are widely seen. Food riots have erupted in countries from West Africa to South Asia. Communities living in countries where food has to be imported to feed hungry populations are rising up to protest the high cost of living. Many governments have issued export bans and price controls on food, distorting markets and presenting challenges to commerce. In January, for example, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai appealed f...

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (IPS) - When U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last January, his primary focus was not on the impending global economic recession but on the world’s growing water crisis.“A shortage of water resources could spell increased conflicts in the future,” he told the annual gathering of business tycoons, academics and leaders from governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations. “Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon,” he warned. Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute, says the lack of safe drinking water for over 1.0 billion people worldwide, and the lack of safe sanitation for over 2.5 billion, “is an acute and devastating humanitarian crisis.” “But this is a crisis of management, not a water crisis per se, because it is caused by a chronic lack of funding and inadequate understanding of the need for sanitation and good hygiene at the local level,” Berntell told IPS. He said: “This can and must be fixed through improved governance and management, and increased funding, and sustained efforts to achieve the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” which include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger and adequate water and sanitation. A U.N. study released on the eve of World Water Day Mar. 22 says th...

NEW DELHI: India is lagging behind in meeting the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals for bringing down infant and maternal mortality rates but is on course to achieve all other targets, Government said on Monday. Minister of Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhary also informed the Rajya Sabha that the Government is planning to merge two schemes for adolescent girls to universalise the programme. Replying to supplementary, she said the country was “well on track” to meet the Millennium Development Goals but was lagging behind on the target set on bringing down infant and maternal mortality rates. According to a UNICEF report, the mortality rate of children under five years was 76 per thousand births in 2006 while the MDG sets a target of bringing in down to 38 per thousand births by 2015. The average annual rate of reduction has to be 7.6 per cent till 2015 to meet the target. She said the Government is planning to merge the Kishori Shakti Yojana and the Nutrition Programme for Adolescent girls to universalise the programme and recast the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to make it more effective. Chowdhary said the Centre wants the state governments to “come on board” and “partner” it in providing better wages to Anganwadi workers, who are usually roped in by the states for other works including conducting census. “If there is extra work, there should be extra pay,” she said. She also noted that there was no prov...

NAIROBI, Mar 7 (IPS) - On Mar. 8, a century ago, thousands took to the streets of New York in demonstrations aimed at improving life for women. Burning issues of the day included the need for better working conditions — higher pay, a shorter work day — and winning the right to vote.By Kwamboka Oyaro
These protests, by women, led to Mar. 8 being named International Women’s Day — and they have also inspired the theme for this year’s commemorations: ‘Shaping Progress’. A hundred years on, how do the claims of the New York marchers resonate with women of today, especially on the critical matter of pay? In Kenya, both government and the established private sector endorse the principle of equal pay for equal work. Wages are determined by level of entry into an organisation or by years of service, says Titus Ruhiu, chief executive of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, although he notes that matters are more problematic in certain sectors — including agriculture. “It is just because they think men have more output than women. But professional jobs pay equally for work done, to both men and women, in accordance with their qualifications.” Anna Amadi, deputy executive director at the Kenyan chapter of the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA Kenya), is less sanguine. “Companies or jobs where one negotiates one’s pay have rampant pay disparities. A woman working at a reputable law firm in Nairobi realised after months that she was earning half what a male coll...

Agriculture is a vital development tool for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that call for halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, the World Development Report (WDR) launched in Accra yesterday said. Launched as part of the World Bank Development Dialogue Series, the Report titled Agriculture for Development is the 30th in the series and for the first time in 25 years focuses on agriculture, an indication that agriculture and the rural sectors have suffered from neglect and underinvestment for over two decades. It is on the theme: ‘Rethinking Agriculture: What We Know Now, What We Don’t Know.’ The Report provides guidance to Governments and the international community on designing and implementing agriculture for development agendas that make a difference in the lives of hundreds of millions of rural poor. Giving an overview of the Report, lead author Derek Byerlee said agriculture was the strong option for spurring growth, overcoming poverty and enhancing food security in sub-Saharan Africa. He said agricultural productivity growth was vital for stimulating growth in other parts of the economy but accelerated growth required sharp productivity increase in smallholder farming combined with more effective support to millions coping as subsistence farmers many of whom were in the rural areas. ‘Agriculture can offer the pathway out of poverty if efforts are made to increase productivity in the staple foods sector, connect small holders to rapidly expandin...

WASHINGTON, Mar 6 (IPS) - Large majorities of people around the world agree that women should enjoy full equality of rights compared to men, according to a survey of nearly 15,000 respondents in 16 developed and developing countries released here Thursday by WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO).The poll, which was released on the eve of International Women’s Day Saturday, found little difference in the aspiration for gender equality between predominantly Muslim countries and western nations. In Turkey, for example, 80 percent of respondents said they considered equality between men and women to be “very important”, compared to 77 percent who took that position in the United States. Overall, 86 percent of all respondents said they considered gender equality important; 59 percent said they considered it “very important”. The survey found some difference between men and women. While, across all countries, 84 percent of men and 88 percent of women said equality was important, 64 percent of women said it was “very important”, compared to 54 percent of men who agreed. With the exception of India, majorities of 75 percent or more of respondents in the 16 countries also said they believed their governments should make an effort to prevent gender discrimination and promote equality for women, according to the poll. Leading the pack on this position were two developing countries. More than nine out of 10 respondents Mexico (96 percent) and Indonesia (93 percent) said governments should t...

Calamba City, Laguna (3 March) — The Philippines is right on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed upon by the countries of the world way before the target date of 2015, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today.
In her speech opening the Women’s Month celebration at the New Calamba City Hall here this morning, the President said the government’s efforts to achieve the MDGs has earned the Philippines the Top 6 spot among countries with the highest rate of goals achieved.
“On schedule tayo sa pagtataguyod ng UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) na gender equality pagdating ng 2015,” the President said.
Aside from gender equality, the MDG is also composed of “eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; reducing child mortality; combating HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development,” the President said.
“Pang-anim tayo sa pangkalahatan sa buong mundo sa gender parity. Tayo lamang ang bansa sa Asia na nasarado ang gender gap kapwa sa edukasyon at kalusugan, at isa lamang sa anim sa buong mundo na nagakawa nito,” the President added.
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the countries of the world and all the ...

 The chairman of the National Commission on Culture, Professor George Hagan, has stressed the need for policy makers to incorporate the positive dimensions of the country’s culture into national policies to facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). He said cultural practices of the people could have a significant effect on national policies and decisions either positively or negatively and that law makers should not ignore culture ‘and leave it at the bottom of the ladder’ but consider maintaining the positive aspect and integrate them into ‘our policies’. Prof Hagan said this at a day’s workshop organised by the Commission in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) for stakeholders of the MDGs to brainstorm on how best the objectives of the MDG could be achieved. It was attended by representatives from the Ministries of Health, Education, Science and Sports, Culture, Foreign Affairs, NEPAD and Regional Integration, House of Chiefs, Department of Social Welfare, Central Regional Development Commission (CEDECOM) and the Environmental Protection Agency. He said African countries had not made much progress towards achieving the MDG’s objectives even though it was half-way through the 2015 deadline because these countries were yet to examine the cultural practices that could either facilitate or impede on its attainment. Prof Hagan said the objectives of the MDG which included the eradication of extreme poverty, achievement of universal pr...

TOKYO: Japan on Friday pledged a fresh 184 million dollars to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria ahead of hosting a Group of Eight summit set to focus on global health. The aid will be donated to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, established in 2002 by the Group of Eight major industrial countries. The diseases together kill six million people a year, mostly in the developing world, Japan’s foreign ministry said, adding the donation brought Tokyo’s total contribution to the fund to 850 million dollars. “Japan continues to support measures against infectious diseases on a global scale and to stress the role of the global fund to strengthen those measures towards developing countries,” it added. Japan has said it wants to put global health high on the agenda of the Group of Eight summit to be held in July in the northern mountain resort of Toyako amid concern that the world will not meet the UN Millennium Development Goals. The goals, set out by a UN summit in 2000, seek progress in eight areas by 2015 including reducing child mortality rates and halting the spread of AIDS. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was the brainchild of the Group of Eight leaders at their last summit in Japan, held in 2000 on the southern island of Okinawa. The Geneva-based fund, a partnership including governments and the private sector, dispenses financing to local leaders to fight diseases. It does not administer p...

President Bush, on the third country stop of his five-nation Africa tour February 19, announced a $100 million peacekeeper training initiative for Darfur, signed a bilateral investment treaty with Rwanda and told Rwandans that the Peace Corps will be returning to their country for the first time since 1993.
Bush made the announcements at a joint press availability with Rwandan President Paul Kagame following extensive talks with Kagame and his Cabinet. Discussions included issues pertinent to Rwanda and to the region, such as bringing about peace in the Darfur region of Sudan and in the Eastern Congo. GA_googleFillSlot("AllAfrica_Story_Inset"); Providing details on the peacekeeping training initiative, Bush said, “We are cooperating to address violence and genocide in Darfur.” Bush said he was “not surprised that the first nation to step up and say we want to deploy peacekeepers” to Darfur was Rwanda. Bush thanked the Rwandan president, saying “it is a strong statement on your part,” and he credited Rwanda for being one of the largest contributors to peace and stability in Darfur.
The United States, Bush said, has helped to train more than 7,000 Rwandan peacekeepers and provided more than $17 million to equip and transport these forces to Darfur.
Both he and Kagame, Bush said, agree that “the role of the United States is to help Africans deal with African problems.” One such problem is the genocide in Darfur.
Bush said that of the $100 m...

By JENNIFER LOVEN and BEN FELLER
ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) — President Bush handed out hugs and bed nets to battle malaria in Tanzania’s rural north on Monday, saying the U.S. is part of an international effort to provide enough mosquito netting to protect every child under five in the east African nation.
“The disease keeps sick workers home, schoolyards quiet, communities in mourning,” Bush said in an open air pavilion at Meru District Hospital. “The suffering caused by malaria is needless and every death caused by malaria is unacceptable.
“It is unacceptable to people here in Africa, who see their families devastated and economies crippled. It is unacceptable to people in the United States, who believe every human life has value, and that the power to save lives comes with the moral obligation to use it.”
Bush is on six-day trek through five African nations. The public mission of his travels is to improve health on an impoverished continent. The underlying one is to preserve his initiatives beyond his presidency and cement humanitarianism as a key part of his legacy.
The president launched a plan in 2005 to dramatically reduce malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, the worst affected region in the world. More than 80 percent of malaria cases happen here; the disease kills at least 1 million infants and children under five every year. Congress so far has put $425 million toward Bush’s $1.2 billion, five-year program, which has helped more than 25 million...

Vernon TugumizemuKampala
At various State functions the president has vowed to elevate technology in Uganda come 2015. This though is a global initiative supported by the G8 nations under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) package.
Ugandans should be happy for all villages will now be able to access the Internet. This was said by Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development official Mr Richard Ndiku during “awareness creation workshop on community Information Systems” in Hotel Greton in Masaka on February 15. GA_googleFillSlot("AllAfrica_Story_Inset"); Accompanied by National Planning Authority’s (NPA) Mr J.B. Kavuma, Mr Ndiku told local leaders that Unicef has already supporting this project. It is already funding five districts in the Lango sub-region, and it has also engaged mainly government departments of Statistics like UBOS.
Mr Johnson Kagugube, UBOS’s director, says all political leaders and the general public should nurture the programme as its success will help the government to plan for its people without encountering setbacks such as inaccuracies in figure compilation that has for long resulted in sub-county chiefs, LCIII and other local council officials being under paid because of poor population figures.
While officiating at the opening of a NPA, MOLGSD, MOLG, UBOS, workshop in Masaka, the district Vice Chairperson Mr Annas Mawanda appreciated the government’s initiative as it will make both recordkeeping and data ...