By Raila Odinga

My message is that that Raila Odinga is alive and well. It is the same Raila Odinga who speaks to you today. Raila Odinga has not changed. What has changed are some of the circumstances in which Raila Odinga finds himself. And let no one imagine that navigation of those circumstances is by any means easy.

I am no longer an opposition leader. I am a partner in a Grand Coalition Government. That does not mean that my opposition to all that is wrong has lessened.

My determination to eliminate corruption, along with all that has brought Kenya to its knees, will remain where it has always been, as long as injustice and inequality continue to divide us. It will remain deeply entrenched in my heart.

The difference is that I am now prime minister of this country. I can no longer stand on the rooftops shouting against the very government of which I am a part.

That would not be proper or constructive and would lead us nowhere but to a stalemate. My approach must be professional, measured and deliberate, as I work quietly from within to effect change.

Change will be incremental. It cannot be effected overnight. We have a governing machinery and a society in which powerful forces will resist change to the bitter end. But I am committed to the battle, however long it takes, however difficult it becomes. Let no one be in any doubt about that.

We currently face the stark reality of a mortal situation. It is a violation of the most basic human right that people cannot obtain the sustenance they need for survival. And the greatest blame for this lies in the policy failures of past governments.

No one should leap on that statement to say Raila Odinga is trying to absolve the current government. But even as we wait for any who are guilty to face the law, and even as we try to find food enough for every person in our land today, I must do something that to date has been neglected. I must think of tomorrow and act to try and solve our long-term food security problem.

That is why I travel to places such as Gujarat state, in India. I need to learn from countries with problems similar to ours what must be done to effect change. I want to know how and why others have succeeded while we have consistently failed.

Our country is still praying for rain and doing nothing else to ensure its crops are irrigated. I look at Egypt, where it never rains, but where food is abundant. Egypt nourishes its crops with water from Kenyan rivers – rivers that flow into Lake Victoria, and thence to the Nile and on to Egyptian irrigation systems.

How shameful is this, that another nation can do with our resources what we cannot?

I look at Gujarat, mostly semi-desert, not unlike Samburu. But every river in Gujarat is dammed at regular intervals, providing abundant water resources, and the state has become a net food exporter.

We Must Get Moving

Gujarat has 40 ports along its coastline. It has a forward-looking and ambitious programme of port and hinterland development that has multiplied development in the past 15 years, and much of this has been achieved in partnership with the private sector.

What have Kenyan governments done to facilitate similar development in the same 15 years? We must get moving, or we set the seal on our own death sentence.

Other interests sometimes stand in our way. We want to build a second port at Lamu, whose deep waters and protected channel offer huge potential for trade, industry and development – but the plan has faced opposition from environmental groups, who would like us forever to keep our country the way God made it.

The environment is a prime concern of mine, as my efforts to resettle the Mau Forest groups and regenerate that important environmental resource attest to. (And who can deny the importance of such efforts, in the face of the drought and famine we currently face?)

But there has to be a balance. If the environment were the only concern, there would be no modern Kenya. We cannot turn back the clock. We must meet the needs of our people, and we must do so in ways that allow development and issues such as environmental conservation to go hand-in-hand. And that brings me to the role of the media, some of whom are only too eager to promote the cause of any group opposing government plans, regardless of the inherent value of those plans.

Yes, we rely on the media to highlight and expose corruption and wrongdoing in any matter that impacts on society. That is a role our media have performed bravely on many occasions, and I have applauded that bravery and have also been vocal in defending media freedom.

What is dragging our media down, and taking our country with it, is a tendency by some to sacrifice meaningful debate for manufactured controversy.

I have recently been accused of saying that scandals in the maize industry are “trivial” and the media should not bother with them. That is not what I intended when I made remarks during a media briefing.

I was attempting to point out how the media’s tendency to be cynical about me in particular has led them up many blind alleys, and I was referring especially to a maize ‘scandal’ in which some media have tried to implicate me – because I ordered the suspension of advertisements regarding a second grain bulk-handling terminal at Mombasa port.

When I must defend myself

As it turns out, the ‘scandal-in-the-making’ was the one my action halted, as further investigations have shown. When I described some media as trivialising rather than illuminating some issues, that was the kind of personalised, manufactured scandal I had in mind.

There comes a point when I must defend myself against constant media onslaught. When my integrity is impugned, I must defend it. And when I said I would deal with such media, I meant I would respond through the legal means open to me, as to any other citizen.

If I do not respond, that becomes another story, and also leads to presumption of my guilt by the ‘Gotcha!’ media, who are only interested in creating drama for the sake of drama.

Those media discard the search for truth in favour of mocking and jeering – trying to foster, through the kind of coarsened discourse that diminishes us all, personal and political revenge and destruction.

That cannot help our country. We must raise the level of our debate, our commitment and our actions. This must cut across society, but our media must play their part, and must work to capture the attention and imagination of the public with “unsexy” issues that can ultimately improve, not lessen and lower, our status as a nation.

The media can, and no doubt will, continue to look for corruption in my work. They will never find it. I have never stooped, and I will never stoop, so low as to involve myself in illegal matters.

The answer to those who ask about Raila Odinga and his beliefs and promises is this: Nothing has changed. My intention is to leave this nation a better place than I found it. My political life has no other purpose. That is Raila Odinga’s unalterable pledge.

Give them a break, it’s

 their people! (editorial)

Kigali (Rwanda) — Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have taken the unprecedented move of working together to bring back stability to eastern DRC, but this seems to have struck the wrong chord in some people’s hearts.

Rwandans have a saying that, if literary translated means; “He who shows more sympathy for a child than its mother, has no good intentions towards it” (Urusha nyina w’umwana imbabazi aba ashaka ku murya).

Do these fellows mean to say that they are more affected by the plight of the population than the Congolese and Rwandans’ who feel the full blunt of the insecurity?

Judging from the reactions coming from the some sections of the international community – especially the so-called human rights defenders – against the joint operation, it not only reeks of pure shameless posturing to gain airtime, it is also an attempt to cover for their criminal neglect of the Congolese population.

They argue that since MONUC was not consulted, then those “primitive African armies” will only cause more suffering to the Congolese.

One should not be surprised if a report entitled “Mass human rights violations; hundreds of thousands displaced in renewed fighting” hits the news head-lines tomorrow. That is what they feed on!

It is an open secret that the DRC has been a milking cow to many NGOs and the contents of their coffers might deplete if peace is restored.

They have now magically come up with the figure of 5.5 million dead (two months ago it was 4 million) to attract their donors on the endless humanitarian trip to nowhere.

All the entire world has done to end the DRC conflict is “talk” and no action. Now the DRC and Rwanda come up with the novel idea of joining forces to stabilize the region, and people are surprised that former enemies could find a common ground and come up with a home-made solution.

Both countries have shown that they can walk the talk. Let them be or turn down the volume.

source:The New Times /Rwanda) – January 29, 2009.

Today, however, rising temperatures, spiralling population growth and inefficient irrigation are severely straining resources and threatening renewed economic and social breakdown.

Water, water, everywhere?

Lebanon has the highest annual rainfall in the region, averaging 827mm compared to 630mm in Israel, 252mm in Syria and just 154mm in Iraq, according to a paper on climate change and water in Lebanon in the September 2002 Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management.

Yet experts estimate that demand for water in Lebanon will have increased by more than 80 percent by 2025 as Lebanon’s population is expected to grow from four to 7.6 million. In the same period, as a result of climate change, average summer temperatures in the country are predicted to increase by 1.2 degrees centigrade. Rising temperatures mean more water lost to evapotranspiration (from land to the atmosphere). This, in turn, could boost demand for irrigation in the Bekaa’s rich agricultural farmlands by as much as 18 percent, according to Randa Massad, an irrigation expert at the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute.

“Water shortage is not a new phenomenon in the Bekaa region,” said Massad. “What is new is that it is occurring in an increasingly changed environment and this makes it more serious and long-lasting.”

In 2007, the energy and water ministry said Lebanon could have a water deficit by 2010. The ministry is implementing and developing a 10-year water strategy designed to promote integrated water resources management, including controlling unlicensed wells, updating antiquated distribution mechanisms – such as exposed canals that lose water to evaporation – and addressing the lack of wastewater treatment facilities for water reuse.

About 70 percent of wastewater is dumped into cesspools that are polluting groundwater sources, according to the International Development Research Centre.

In a lecture in January to Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, Hamed Assaf, a professor of water resources engineering at the American University of Beirut, urged regional governments to practice “water demand management”.

High water demand, negligence over water quality and over-pumping are more serious threats to the region’s water supply than the potential impacts of climate change, argued Assaf.

Drier days

But up the mountain in Oyoun Orghosh, Milhem Tawk, the family elder, claimed falling rain levels is the main problem. “If the water doesn’t get down to them [Amhaz], it’s not because of us, it’s because it’s not raining,” he said.

Though many households in the Bekaa grow their own fruit and vegetables, the diversion of the Orghosh spring has meant Nabha’s farmers have been unable to grow fruit on a commercial scale since the 1960s.

Across areas of the northern Bekaa with better irrigation, many farmers have turned land over to growing water-thirsty but economically lucrative hashish plants – totalling some 16,000 acres of land, according to the 2007 UN World Drug Report.

Last September, Nabha’s declining water supply triggered demonstrations in front of Baalbek municipality with protesters demanding the government take action to guarantee the fair distribution of Oyoun Orghush water.

“The only people that can solve this problem are the government,” said Bishop Somaan Attala, who has been involved in mediating the dispute. “They have promised to invest in improving the water supply, but they don’t. They should, because tensions are rising.”

The Bekaa is criss-crossed with tribal, sectarian and political faultlines, which water scarcity can easily provoke. The valley is an economically underdeveloped area where more than 40 percent of residents are dependent on agriculture as their main source of living, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

“Lebanon will be very seriously affected by climate change,” said Hussein Amery, an expert on water conflict in the Middle East. “When you have bad blood and a history of conflict, water becomes a trigger.”

afs/hm/ar/ed

source.www.irinnews.org

GLOBAL: As NGOs cut jobs, “this is no time to lose talent”

Photo: Life

Aid workers unloading supplies in Gaza (file photo)

DAKAR, 30 January 2009 (IRIN) – As the bleak economic climate forces NGOs to scale back staff, human resource experts say managers should focus as much on developing skilled staff for the long term as they have on cutting back.

“The right skills and talent are still in short supply in the aid industry,” said Ben Emmens, human resource director at People in Aid, an NGO network focused on management in the aid industry.

“In these difficult times we need fewer people to do more, and better. Humanitarian disasters won’t disappear because of a recession – in fact, they’re likely to be exacerbated.”

He added: “This is no time to lose talent. Managers should use this [period] as an opportunity to better use and nurture the talent they already have. “

International humanitarian NGOs have not always been good at this. Turnover rates at aid agencies are higher than the average in other sectors; though there have been no standardised studies and estimates of rates vary figures vary from 20 to 46 percent, depending on how turnover is defined.

With turnover defined as “a premature cessation of a contract”, average turnover across all sectors in the UK was 17.5 percent in 2008, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development annual report.

In some cases keeping staff in place short-term is healthy – managers do not want staff to stay long-term in a conflict-affected fragile state for instance.

But “a striking majority” of aid agencies consider staff turnover to be a problem, draining agency finances and eroding programme quality, according to 2006 research Understanding and addressing staff turnover in humanitarian agencies’ by People in Aid.

Turnover can lead to a loss of institutional memory; a waste of money spent re-recruiting, re-training re-inducting and re-deploying; low staff morale and increased stress levels for staff who remain, according to People in Aid.

Photo: People in Aid

Ben Emmens of People in Aid

The recruitment process costs on average US$8,500 for the post of international emergency programme manager, says Save the Children, while the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (ICRC), puts the cost of its hiring process at $21,400.

Understanding why people leave – and stay – is the first step to lowering these figures, says Emmens.

Why turnover high

A common perception is that aid workers quit because of environmental reasons – the high stress of the job, huge workloads, potential insecure environments, and difficult living conditions.

“Emergency response is exhausting. It takes a lot out of you. [In an emergency] you can work 18 hours, seven days a week – it’s not sustainable,” said Jessica Taublib-Kiriat, a 29-year old emergency programme coordinator with the International Rescue Committee.

But NGO World Vision says inter and intra-agency politics, inconsistent management, a lack of team work and unclear organisational objectives are more likely to lead to chronic stress and burnout.

“Aid workers have a pretty shrewd idea of what they are getting into when they enter this career, and dirty clothes, gun shots at night and lack of electricity do not surprise them,” World Vision’s stress and trauma handbook reads.

Oxfam’s emergency programme manager in Chad, Pauline Ballaman, told IRIN it is simple: “Good management is enough to make me stay. And if it is bad – I’ll leave.”

For Ballaman, the first step is for organisations to standardise their procedures and make them more suitable to emergency environments, to make staff handovers easier. The second is to “get the small things right”.

“Giving people 10-minute phone calls with their family once a week, giving them good R and R, and giving them support – these make a huge difference,” she said.

Changing the mindset

But there is also a practical reason why turnover is so high year on year in the aid world, says Emmens: short-term contracts.

…Good management is enough to make me stay. And if it is bad – I’ll leave…

NGO staff often blame short-term donor funding for having to impose short-term contracts. “It is increasingly difficult for agencies to maintain long-term funding in chronic emergencies,” said Save the Children emergency director Gareth Owen.

And aid managers say a shift in donors wanting to fund the UN instead of NGOs directly reduces the money available to NGOs to train and mentor staff.

But Emmens says NGOs also need to shift their mindset. “It is about aversion to risk. If you take someone on and you are not guaranteed funding you may avoid issues around severance and redundancy by not giving them a long-term contract, but this could eventually affect the quality of your work,” he said.

Sorcerers and apprentices

To flourish NGOs need skilled, experienced staff who can apply lessons learned from one emergency to another, and who avoid making repeat mistakes, aid workers say.

“Old-timers are essential as they maintain and put into action the value set and culture of the organisation – they are the organisation’s conscience and moderate its ethics,” Owen pointed out.

“They are also the wise sages who teach the new talent. They are safe havens of reliability and when mixed with new talent, this can be a potent force. Every sorcerer needs an apprentice.”

Change

Agencies are starting to take mentoring and staff development more seriously.

Seven of the largest international humanitarian NGOs have formed the emergency capacity-building project (ECB) to improve organisations’ ability to respond to emergencies, including how to retain and develop staff.

Through the project agencies discuss successful mentoring schemes. Catholic Relief Services runs an international development fellowship programme to recruit graduates into country programmes, up to 95 percent of whom go on to take up management posts within the agency.

Save the Children US trains and mentors local staff – who generally stay longer-term – to respond to emergencies by posting them on short-term assignments around the world. Its counterpart Save the Children UK runs a leadership development programme, and training schemes for neglected response areas such as child protection .

“When you grow your own talent you get to mould them in the way you want…they are fearless and ambitious and bring tremendous energy which challenges established norms. This is key to diversifying the institutional DNA,” said Owen.

Some donors, among them the UK Department for International Development, Irish Aid and ECHO, are willing to support such schemes, say aid managers.

Meanwhile, several European NGOs are increasingly adopting open-ended contracts with mobility clauses so experts can spread their experience.

The next phase of the ECB project, to be launched in February 2009, will outline in more detail how agencies can identify and nurture their talent, no matter how grim the economic climate.

“It is a tough climate now,” Matt Bannerman, project director of the ECB said. “Agencies have to be particularly careful now about how they use resources. But trends in terms of scale and frequency in terms of emergencies make the issue of capacity and working together especially acute.”

aj/np source.www.irinnews.org