Photo: Tariq Saeed/IRIN

Many families used up savings while displaced, leaving them dependent on borrowing

MINGORA,  – People living in and around Swat Valley’s principal city of Mingora are facing tough economic choices as a direct result of the recent clashes between government forces and militants in northwestern Pakistan.

“There is a curfew in many places outside Mingora. People cannot work or move freely, and this means they cannot earn,” said Shaukat Salim, a Mingora-based lawyer and human rights activist.

Many people were being forced to sell household goods, jewelry or any other belongings to survive. “Soon they will have nothing left to sell,” he said.

Others say they have lost their livelihoods because of the damage caused to infrastructure by over two months of fierce fighting.

“I used to earn around Rs 200 [US$2.40] per trip by transporting goods to the market for farmers or those who manufactured small items of various kinds. But now the roads are so badly damaged only donkeys or other animals can move along them, and my van is useless,” said local trader Daud Ali.

“I was terrified my vehicle would be destroyed during the fighting. Now I wish that that had happened. It serves no purpose for me,” he said, adding that checkpoints were also restricting movement.

The destruction of shops, schools and offices has led to income loss for many others.

“My husband was a cleaner at a local clinic. But it has been closed as the building was damaged and the owner has gone to Peshawar for good. Now we beg from our neighbours,” Azra Bibi, a local resident, told IRIN. She said local shops had stopped giving her and others credit for fear they would not be able to pay it back.

Restoring livelihoods

Sebastien Brack of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has been active in conflict-hit areas for many weeks, said: “Livelihood is a key concern, as many people used up their savings during the time of displacement and had to borrow large sums.”

Food packages were being distributed so that “people don’t have to spend more and build up more debt,” Brack said.

Despite such efforts, people who have returned to Mingora and other conflict-hit zones after weeks of displacement are struggling to manage. “Our land has been destroyed; we have no stocks of food and it will take a year before we can grow vegetables to sell,” said Karimullah Khan, a farmer from a village on the outskirts of Mingora.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, minister of information in the North West Frontier Province government, said: “We are aware of the problems people face in Swat and are doing everything we can.”

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani earlier this month announced a development plan for Swat which included programmes to increase access to livelihoods.

High cost of food

Meanwhile, food prices remain higher in Mingora than in places outside the conflict zone and supplies are erratic. A 20kg sack of wheat flour costs US$10-20 in Mingora, but under $7.40 outside the conflict zone.

“There is a need for food assistance in Swat, especially for people who remained stuck there through the weeks of conflict and received no help at all,” Amjad Jamal, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Pakistan, told IRIN, adding that WFP would be carrying out an assessment to ascertain exactly what help was needed.

kh/at/cb source.www.irinnews.org

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

A boy at an IDP camp in Jowhar: An estimated 9,000 IDP families (49,000 people), live mostly in seven camps in Jowhar – file photo

NAIROBI,  – Two months after food deliveries to Somalia’s south-central town of Jowhar were halted, several thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) are facing a food crisis, sources said.

“The little food we were given in June is gone; we have had nothing in the last two months,” Asiyo Jilibey, a community leader, told IRIN on 27 August. “I don’t know what will happen next but if help does not arrive soon we are in trouble.”

An estimated 9,000 IDP families (49,000 people), live mostly in seven camps in the town, 90km north of the capital, Mogadishu. The camps are Dayah, Kalagoye, Bada Cas, Baryare, Bulo Matuuni, Biyafo and Sheikh Omar Camp.

Jilibey said most of the IDPs had been in the camps since early 2007, when an upsurge in violence in Mogadishu sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, “but we had a new influx in May, June and early July [2009]“.

Food distributions were stopped in Jowhar after June due to insecurity, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

“We last distributed 124.46MT of assorted food assistance to 8,190 Jowhar IDPs in June,” Mahamud Hassan “Guled”, a spokesman for WFP Somalia, said. “But due to the insecurity, our local partner could not distribute the planned July food rations to the IDPs and the situation remains the same this month.”

The Islamist al-Shabab has been in control of Jowhar since May 2009. The group raided and looted UN offices there. Jowhar was the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) main hub for the southern and central regions of Somalia.

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

A girl cooking outside Sheikh Omar IDP camp in Jowhar: Two months after food deliveries to Jowhar were halted, several thousand IDPs are facing a food crisis – file photo

“Some days nothing”

Mumino Ibrahim, a mother of seven, said she had no food left and was on her way to town find some work.

“Maybe I will get enough so we can have a meal tonight,” she said, adding that she had left her children in the care of the oldest, a 10-year-old girl. “Some days I get enough for a meal and some days nothing.”

Ibrahim, a resident of Dayah Camp, along with 451 other displaced families [2,706 people], said if she did not leave the children to look for work, “they will starve. There is no one else.”

Fartun Salah, a mother of four, said she arrived in Dayah Camp two months ago, fleeing violence in Mogadishu. “I went back [to the city] when the Ethiopians left but had to flee again.”

She said the violence was worse now than in 2007. “I thought that after the Ethiopians we would have peace but this is worse than before.

“I do odd jobs when I get them, like everybody else, but sometimes it is not even enough for one meal. My children are hungry and only God can save us now,” Salah said.

Jilibey said it was common to see families putting a pot on the stove “with nothing but water so the children will think food is coming and sleep”.

The situation is made worse because the odd jobs that many IDPs depend on have disappeared. “There is hardly any business activity in the area, so nobody is hiring,” she said.

Jilibey said the situation was “very desperate and people will likely die if we don’t get help soon”.

ah/mw source.www.irinnews.org

By Benson Kathuri

Local manufacturers will have to wait three years before they can enjoy the benefits of the recently agreed Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) trade agreement.

Though leaders from the 19-member country bloc launched a Customs Union (CU) that would allow free movement of goods and services across the region a fortnight ago, it will take three years to be fully implemented.

“The countries are being given three years which can be extended to five years to align their national tariffs with the Comesa external tariff,” said Stephen Karangizi, Comesa assistant secretary general in charge of programmes.

Speaking to the press after attending a trade workshop for representatives from the member states, Karangizi however, said CU is operational and a management team picked at the Lusaka-based secretariat to run the operations.

He said Heads of States who met in Zimbabwe endorsed the CU that means that all finished imported goods to the region will attract 25 per cent duty.

However, the members were not expected to sign any deal to join the CU because it was included in the Comesa Treaty of 1994 that proposed that it be launched after ten years.

The members, however, failed to have it started in 2004. It was expected to be launched in May last year but was delayed after the Heads of States summit failed to take place in Harare.

He said the players and mainly from the private sector have not agreed on all goods to be charged the lower rates.

source.standard.ke

By Ali Abdi

It is a rare case that illustrates extreme consequences of forced marriage of underage girls in parts of Northern Kenya.

A school has defied education rules to fight this culture that deprives hundreds of young girls a chance to get an education.

The school has allowed a girl, who was recently forced into marriage, then divorced, to return to class, with her baby.

It is a rare case that has been drawing crusaders of girl child rights in Isiolo region to the school to support the girl and to use her case as an example to why forced marriage should be fought by all means.

Girl child rights activist Muslima Gababo baby-sits while the mother-pupil is in class.

While other pupils at a school, in Garba Tulla District, dash out of class to play, the Standard Eight girl moves to a shade of an acacia tree to breastfeed her baby.

When the frail, young mother-pupil is through, she walks back to class, cuddling her baby-girl, aged eight months, and sits on her desk for a mathematics or another lesson.

Halima Roba, 16, (not her real name) is an odd pupil at the primary school but fellow pupils and teachers have learnt to accept her, even help her with baby sitting.

The bright Standard Eight pupil had been married off unwillingly after an elders’ kangaroo court ruled it was the only option for her when she was made pregnant by a man who tricked her into a sexual encounter.

Her protestations that she did not want to get married but wanted to continue schooling, fell on deaf ears as the elders, who arbitrate in cases of pre-marital pregnancy, told her it would be an embarrassment to her clan if she tried to give birth outside wedlock.

Married and divorced

But the man who married her later divorced her even before she gave birth.

However, her resolve to get an education, which had been cut short by the forced marriage, saw her return and get accepted to her former school.

The school administration waived rules and allowed her to attend classes with her baby.

Her teachers were told by the school administration it was important to help her complete her education. At times some teachers help her cuddle the baby when it cries in class. Through the school day, the baby could change hands from Halima, other pupils and the class teacher. A girl child’s rights activist often shows up at the school to help in baby sitting while the young mother reads.

Sexual exploitation

Halima is among hundreds of children of nomadic communities who are victims of child abuse that include sexual exploitation, early marriage, divorce and denial of an education.

But unlike many who never make an effort to go back to class, Halima, despite her predicament and the stigma that goes with it, made a rare move in this region where girl child rights are widely trampled on.

The head teacher Mr Mohammed Adiyo says he learnt that Halima, then in Standard Seven, was pregnant last October 16.

“We learnt that the pupil, one of the best academically was pregnant.

She confessed to her mother and pleaded to be allowed back to school,” Adiyo said recently at the school.

The culprit (name withheld) is a young man who is an accounts student at a Nairobi college. Those interviewed said he comes from a relatively wealthy and influential family who ganged up and frustrated Halima’s mother from seeking justice.

The head teacher told officials of Action-Aid’s Sericho Development Initiative and Sauti Ya Akina Mama officials that the school management committee thereafter wrote a letter to Garba-Tulla District Education Officer through his assistant based at the Sericho divisional headquarters of Modogashe.

On the same date, the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) and the pupil herself wrote a complaint letter to the police and District Officer of Modogashe, about 100km away.

The nursing girl on the left, and fellow pupils are taught by a teacher. Photos: Ali Abdi/Standard

Last December, after learning that the complaint had reached the authorities, the boy’s clan elders met the girl’s clan to negotiate a settlement. Halima who has no father appeared before the elders’ kangaroo court who resolved that she be married after the young man agreed he was responsible for her pregnancy. Sauti Ya Kina Mama, a community-based organisation based in Sericho division, said the girl was accused of giving in to the ‘pleasures of sex’ and told to be contented with marriage.

Halima says she was escorted by the man’s relatives to his family home. But after a few days, the man vanished and his relatives told Halima to return to her mother, which she obliged. The girl gave birth on January 25.

Forget school

Halima said, “He abandoned me the same month and vowed to divorce me. I decided I was going back to school,’’ said the soft spoken girl. Despite the odds and unlike other girl-children from pastoralist communities who are forced into marriage, Halima soldiered on.

“Carrying a malnourished child on her back, Halima pleaded that she be re-admitted back to school. I gladly received her back as education is her right,” said Adiyo. The school was faced with a challenge of how to cope with pupil-mother and baby in the classroom but they decided to make a case against cultural abuse of girls, he says.

source.standard.ke

By John Oyuke

The Kenyan business community will soon sample new investment opportunities once the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) launches a regional procurement market.

The move by the trade bloc, this month, will require the tendering systems of member states to be open to regional competitive bidding process.

Project Manager for Procurement, Colas Ziki, said under the arrangement suppliers from member states, would be free to bid for tenders floated in the region for procurement of public goods and services.

He said the states would be required to post information on public procurement not available within their localities onto a Comesa procurement website.

Kenya’s Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) official, Henock Kirungu said the plan was on course following its approval by the Head of State and Government’s Comesa Summit in Zimbabwe in June.

“We are, however, in consultations with other procuring entities and government arms, especially Treasury on implementation of the new trade regime,” Kirungu who is in charge of Policy at PPOA told The Standard on Sunday.

Procurement Act 2006

The procurement oversight authority, which is the regulator of the country’s public procurement system, became operational on January 1, last year after the Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations 2006 was gazetted.

The Act empowers it to oversee how public entities — the Government ministries, including Treasury, departments, local authorities, state corporations, co-operative societies, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) as well as health and learning institutions — procure their goods and services.

Kirungu said the trade arrangement would be launched in Kenya as soon as the discussions with local procuring entities are finalised.

Ziki said last week suppliers from the region will be free to submit bids as long as they fulfill some basic validation criteria.

The tenders outside a member State would have to exceed respective national threshold levels for goods, services and construction projects.

He said the introduction of the Regional Procurement Market was also in line with the Comesa procurement directive was issued by Comesa leaders during their summit in Khartoum, Sudan in 2003.

Procurement markets

Comesa believes the new instrument, that is, the regulations, would now make it possible for suppliers in the region to access the various public procurement markets to be found in the current 19 member States.

This should further consolidate the Free Trade Area and the recently launched Customs Union by contributing to the Comesa intra regional trade.

Given that public procurement constitutes approximately 70 per cent of government revenue and 15 per cent of Gross Domestic products, the impact of public procurement to Comesa intra-regional trade is expected to be enormous.

The regional procurement regulations compel member States to procure goods and services within the region first before sourcing from outside the trading bloc.

Comesa intra trade is currently confined to cross border business, low level procurements of the public sector and the usual trade between private sector players.

In addition to fostering increased intra regional trade, the regulations further require member States to reform by modernising and harmonising their procurement systems and entrenching provisions in their domestic laws.

Management of process

The provisions seek to promote transparency, accountability, competition, efficiency and fairness in the management of public procurement.

The journey to harmonise public procurements systems in the region started three years ago with African Development Bank (ADB) agreeing to finance the review of public procurement systems for Comesa member States at a cost of $8.40 million (Sh638.4m) at current exchange rate.

Additional costs

The actual project cost was estimated at over US$ 9.44 million (Sh717.44 m) with the additional cost to be met by Comesa member States.

ADB was to finance 89 per cent of the cost while Comesa financed 11 per cent.

—oyuke@standardmedia.co.ke

source.standard.ke

STATEMENT: As U.N. General Downplays Crisis,
Enough Project and Sudan Now Allies Stress
Urgency for Obama Administration

Citing the 3 million Darfuris suffering in camps, groups say Agwai “misses the big picture” in declaring end to crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Enough Project at the Center for American Progress released the following statements today concerning the remarks of departing UNAMID commander Martin Luther Agwai, who declared, “As of today, I would not say there is a war going on in Darfur.”

Enough Project Executive Director John Norris noted, “The outgoing commander is correct that there has been a lull in fighting in Darfur, but he entirely misses the big picture in doing so. What he and others conveniently fail to mention: the three million Darfuris stuck in refugee and displaced camps unable to return to their homes because of insecurity and violence. Instead of offering self-congratulatory remarks, the entire international community should be appalled that after more than six years they have failed to create the conditions on the ground that would allow displaced people to return home by disarming the janjaweed, holding perpetrators of earlier war crimes accountable, securing a viable peace deal, and putting a credible peacekeeping force in place.”

Enough Project Co-founder John Prendergast added, “The Obama administration is not leading a new peace process for Darfur; it is more energetically supporting a failed one. The United States must urgently lead a group of concerned nations—including Egypt and China—to offer sustained, high-level support for peace talks that focus on developing a draft peace proposal that addresses the core issues of the conflict and empowers the head mediator to reach a political settlement.”

This week a coalition of anti-genocide advocacy organizations announced the launch of a bold new campaign called Sudan Now: Keep the Promise. The campaign challenges President Barack Obama and top U.S. administration officials to live up to their campaign and political promises by taking strong and immediate action to help end the international crisis in Sudan and bring a lasting peace to the people of that country. Members of the coalition include Humanity United, the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress, Stop Genocide Now, and Investors Against Genocide.

As part of the campaign’s launch, a series of print and online advertisements are appearing in national publications this week. The advertisements feature statements made by President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary Clinton, which focused on applying “real pressure” to, and ensuring “strong consequences” for, the government of Sudan. In sharp contrast, the U.S. administration’s current approach, according to Sudan Now members, seems to favor incentives and concessions over strong, comprehensive action.

send in by: Eileen White Read