UN Radio

UN and Africa
Programme Number: 174
Week of: Sunday, 14th October, 2007
Recording Date: Thursday, 18th October, 2007
Topical Issue(s):

" Rebel Sudanese groups that have not signed a peace agreement with the government have been meeting in the southern city of Juba to try to come up with a common position at peace talks on Darfur to be held on 27 October. The UN Special envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson says it is extremely important for the people of Darfur to be represented at the talks in Libya.

" For the first time in years, Sub-Saharan African countries are growing faster than the global economy. UNDP Administrator, Kemal Dervis and UNDP's Regional Director for Africa, Gilbert Houngbo, say this is due to, among other things, good leadership.

" A rare outbreak of a vaccine-derived form of polio has hit northern Nigeria, affecting 69 children. Sona Bari, a polio expert at the World Health Organization says this outbreak underlines the importance of vaccinating all children against polio.

Producer/presenter: Derrick Mbatha
Editor: Ransford Cline-Thomas
Production Assistant: Florence Poblete-Enriquez
Studio Engineer: Zach Pruwit
Duration: 15'00"

PRESENTER: This is United Nations Radio in New York.

*** SIG TUNE *** (Please, play briefly, dip upon wave, and hold under narr.)
PRESENTER:

Hello and welcome to UN and Africa. I'm Derrick Mbatha.

*** SIG TUNE ***: (Bring Sig Tune up briefly, dip and hold under)

PRESENTER: In today's programme, the United Nations envoy for Darfur says there should be no turning back on the forthcoming talks to resolve the Darfur crisis.

CLIP 1: Jan Eliasson
"My view is that we should stay the course and go for the talks in Libya starting on the 27th of October. I do not think that the situation will in any way improve by waiting."

PRESENTER: You will hear more on that in a moment. Also in this edition, Sub-Saharan African countries are growing faster than the world economy.

CLIP 2: Kemal Dervis
"There is actually excellent leadership in many ministries and in many countries. And I think leadership in many countries is characterized by a new can-do results-oriented and pragmatic attitude"

PRESENTER: And, a rare form of polio which is caused by a vaccine hits northern Nigeria.

CLIP 3: Sona Bari
"It is a paralyzing virus which children can only be protected against if they have been vaccinated."

PRESENTER: Sounds contradictory? You will hear more on that later in the programme.

So, stay tuned to UN and Africa.

*** SIG TUNE *** (Bring up briefly, dip and hold under until first sentence)

UN Envoy Stresses the Need for Libya Talks on Darfur to Go Ahead

PRESENTER: Representatives of rebel movements in Darfur have been meeting in the South Sudan capital of Juba this week to try to work out a common position to take to peace talks with the Sudanese government to be held in Sitre, Libya, in less than two weeks. Observers of developments in the troubled Darfur region note that these movements are splintered. Added to this problem is the fact that the founder of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Abdel Wahid Mohamed el-Nur has so far refused to participate in the talks. Gabriel Shadar of UNMIS Radio discussed preparations for the Libya talks with the United Nations Envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, who stressed the need for the people of Darfur to be represented at the talks.

ELIASSON: It's extremely important that the talks in Libya are seen as legitimate and I would say as representative of the desires of the people of Darfur. I am extremely eager to send a message to the people of Darfur that what I and Dr. Salim are trying to do is to be part of a healing process that is so necessary after this traumatic period of modern Darfurian history and Sudanese history.

SHADAR: Talking about the actual preparations for the 27th of this month, how far have you gone now in this preparation?

ELIASSON: We have gone as far as has been possible. I would say we have worked very hard and tried very hard to find solutions to the outstanding issues. Of course, I cannot hide from you that it is difficult to identify the negotiation team on the side of the movements. They have different opinions and they have different factions. We hope very much that they will be able within the next few days to come to such decisions. We also need of course, in the context of the talks, to make sure that the voices of the civil society of the IDPs and the tribal leaders of the great tribes of Darfur, the voices from the tribes are also heard.

SHADAR: There is news that some Darfur movements have called for the postponement of the talks and others said have not received invitations so far, what is happening on the side of these movements apart from not agreeing on representatives?

ELIASSON: My view is that we should stay the course and go for the talks in Libya starting on the 27th of October. I do not think that the situation will in any way improve by waiting. On the contrary we run the risk, I think, of the deterioration. We should agree very quickly at the beginning of the talks on a credible cessation of hostilities agreement and that is so urgent that I would decline the ideas of postponement and hope that we would all be ready to start the talks on the 27th.

SHADAR: Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nur has still defied all efforts to get him involved in the peace talks. France is thinking of expelling him. He has sympathizers in IDP camps in Darfur. How can the talks be a success without Mohamed Nur participating?

ELIASSON: Well, I cannot hide from you again, this is a problem. If he chooses not to come that he will let the voices of the camps be heard at the talks so that we can defend the interest of his own people.

SHADAR; In case these efforts do not succeed, what's your plan B?

ELIASSON: I don't want to talk about Plan B. I think we should focus completely on Plan A. It will be demoralizing for me to talk about a Plan B. We have worked very hard. We have had three very major steps in the past to prepare for this stage. We have the Security Council resolution 1769 of the 31st of July with the strengthening of the peacekeeping presence. We have the Arusha meeting third to sixth of August where we had a common platform from most of the movements and we have the decision of Chairman Konare and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of announcing the date and the venue, the place for the talks 27th of October and Libya, in Sirte, in fact in Libya.

PRESENTER: That was Jan Eliasson, the United Nations Special Envoy for Darfur, speaking with Gabriel Shadar of UNMIS Radio. UNMIS is the United Nations Mission in Sudan.

STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC

Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa Grow Faster than Global Economy

PRESENTER: Despite all the problems and difficulties that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to face, particularly on the economic front, two senior United Nations officials brought good news this week. Kemal Dervis, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and Gilbert Houngbo, UNDP's Regional Director for Africa, talked to reporters in New York about the good economic performance of the continent. UN Radio's Ransford Cline-Thomas reports.

NARRATOR: In his press briefing on Tuesday, UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis, who has just returned from a two-week to Eastern and Southern Africa, said that for the first time in years, countries in sub-Saharan Africa are actually growing faster than the global economy. He said the gross domestic product or GDP, between 2000 and 2003 grew by close to four per cent, and over the next two years by over five and-a-half per cent. The GDP is, of course, the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country in one year. Now the numbers for this year's performance are not yet ready but, according to Mr. Dervis, they will probably be around six per cent. However he cautioned that this growth is not the same for all the countries in the region.

CUT 1: Kemal Dervis: There are some differences, of course, between the oil importing and the oil exporting countries, with on average over the last six years, the oil exporting countries growing at about one and a half percentage point faster. But the difference isn't huge.

NARRATOR: Mr. Dervis attributes this good economic performance by African countries to several factors including the end of conflicts.

CUT 2: Kemal Dervis: Now, in terms of some of the key issues, I would say that where conflict has been overcome, where there is no violence, no internal conflict or conflict with neighbours, that is of course the first condition for progress and those countries which have not yet overcome conflict are, of course, still suffering and progress is quite impossible.

NARRATOR: The head of UNDP pointed out that Sub-Saharan African countries have also overcome some of the problems they faced in the past including very high inflation rates and bad economic planning. Another important factor, he said, is leadership.

CUT 3: Kemal Dervis: There is actually excellent leadership in many ministries and in many countries. And I think leadership in many countries is characterized by a new can-do results-oriented and pragmatic attitude. However, the capacity, in terms of the overall administration, remains of course, very weak.

NARRATOR: Gilbert Houngbo, the UNDP's Regional Director for Africa agrees, saying there is improvement in the area of good governance.

CUT 4: Gilbert Houngbo: While we still have a lot of issues with corruption, with not good governance in general, the economic governance, if you look the past ten years, both on the democratic as well as the economic governance, there are improvements, maybe not as fast as we would like. I cover 45 countries of Sub Sahara Africa. In the last two years I visited at least thirty of them, you see more and more a new generation of ministers, of prime ministers and presidents.

NARRATOR: Mr. Houngbo also noted that Sub-Saharan African countries are also making an effort to ensure that they have the right people with skills doing the job. He pointed out that leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa are committed to increasing Africa's contribution to the world market, and they realize that to do so they need economic growth.

CUT 5: Gilbert Houngbo: That also has led to a lot of policy changes in a lot of countries. We talk about Tanzania, we talk about Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, there have been a lot of policy changes that creates a better environment to do business, to do private business because we do know that growth can only happen only with a good private sector working.

NARRATOR: Although African countries are making some progress on the economic front, they still face a number of challenges, including the attraction of foreign investments that benefit their economies and the training and retention of more highly skilled people. Reporting for UN Radio, I am Ransford Cline-Thomas.

STING UN AFRICA THEME MUSIC

A Rare Vaccine-derived Polio Virus Paralyzes Children in Northern Nigeria

PRESENTER: A rare form of polio, which comes from a vaccine, has paralyzed close to seventy children in northern Nigeria. Now, this may a little confusing because in the first place children are given a vaccine to protect them against polio, but here we are talking about a vaccine-derived polio virus. Polio is a devastating disease that often leaves infected children paralyzed for life. A campaign to eliminate polio in Africa has been largely successful, but now, we have this form of polio which is linked to a vaccine against the disease. A contradiction? Well, to find out about this form of polio, I called Sona Bari, a polio expert at the World Health Organization in Geneva, who explained how this happens.

BARI: The polio vaccine is based on a live virus which has been weakened through a process in order to provoke an immune response in people without paralyzing them obviously, like the same premise for many vaccinations. In very rare circumstances this weakened virus in the vaccine has been known to mutate back to a form in which it can spread and it can paralyze children. So it is a paralyzing virus which children can only be protected against if they have been vaccinated. These 69 children in Nigeria right now who've been paralyzed by this virus were in fact in large measure not vaccinated.

MBATHA: But how can people infect others with a polio virus? How did they get infected?

BARI: What happens is that the virus first will, when you take in the vaccine, this weakened virus will first confer immunity on you and then in your intestine it will replicate, it will pass through stool into the environment and it will secondarily then immunize those around you who are in close contact with you. So this is why oral polio vaccine is the only vaccine we have that is able to in fact stop the spread of the virus because it both immunizes the person taking the vaccine and the people around that person.

MBATHA: I'm still not clear about how the virus actually spreads and then gets contracted by others.

BARI: It spread basically when you pass it in your stools then through, let's say just your changing your baby's diaper or just through the close contact that we have with our family members. Per force we pass on these things just as we pass on a cold.

MBATHA: Now given the fact that at some point leaders in northern Nigeria temporarily stopped the vaccination campaign, saying that it was a conspiracy to sterilize Muslim women, do outbreaks like this not reinforce their suspicions?

BARI: Absolutely not. What outbreaks like this should do is show them that if you don't vaccinate your child your child will be as vulnerable to this as it is to the far greater danger which is wild polio virus. What we tend to forget in these flurry of news stories is that in the same period of time that these sixty-nine children over the past couple of years have fallen to this vaccine-derived virus, in that same time 2,000 children in Nigeria have been paralyzed by the wild polio virus. It's only the oral polio vaccine that can protect them, and that is what this outbreak is showing us.

MBATHA: Now, from what you know, how have Nigerian officials responded to this outbreak?

BARI: In the period that we have seen both these vaccine-derived cases and of course all the wild polio cases the government has carried out a series of vaccination campaigns, each showing an increasing level of coverage. They are reaching more and more children which is very encouraging.

MBATHA: And what is the World Health Organization doing to help Nigeria cope with this form of polio?

BARI: We are providing all the genetic sequencing, all the lab information that led to this discovery. These are basically looked at in the laboratory network. We assist with technical advice in terms of carrying out vaccination campaigns to address this particular kind of virus. This is part of our continual work with the government to support their polio eradication campaign.

PRESENTER: That was Sona Bari, a polio expert at the World Health Organization, on the line from Geneva.

SIG TUNE (Bring up briefly, dip and hold under)

PRESENTER: And that's all for this edition of UN and Africa. Our Production Assistant was Florence Poblete-Enriquez and our sound engineer was Zach Pruwit. I am Derrick Mbatha saying bye bye.

*** CLOSING MUSIC ***