From Africa Recovery, Vol.15 #1-2, Watch page

WOMEN AND AIDS
UN focuses on 'fatal' gender inequality

The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Joint UN Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) initialled a cooperation agreement on 24 May to expand AIDS education and prevention programmes for women. "Gender inequality is at the heart of the epidemic," noted UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer. With women now accounting for 55 per cent of HIV infections in Africa and 47 per cent worldwide, she noted, "Gender inequality is fatal."

A key issue, the agencies agree, is the power imbalance between men and women that makes it difficult for women to refuse unwanted sexual advances or unsafe practices. In Zambia, for example, researchers report that only 1 woman in 4 believed she could refuse to have sex with her husband. Only 1 in 10 believed that she could ask her husband to use a condom. As a result, noted UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot, African women aged 15-24 can be as much as six times more likely to become infected with the deadly virus.

"It is time for the AIDS community to join hands with the international women's community to hold governments accountable," Ms. Heyzer noted. She called on governments and multilateral agencies to:

-- Guarantee women's access to prevention and treatment, including access to condoms, equality in national AIDS strategies and testing in primary health programmes.

-- Focus research on gender aspects of AIDS.

-- Target females for education and prevention, including participation in the design of AIDS campaigns.

-- Address gender in policy, including recognition of women's roles as primary care-givers, the eradication of social and traditional practices that disempower women, and funding for gender-specific AIDS programmes

-- Heighten awareness of women in conflict situations, including gender-sensitive training for peacekeepers and humanitarian workers and strict enforcement of the UN peacekeeping code of conduct.

The call for access to both men's and women's condoms is particularly important given the sharp decline in international funding for condoms in recent years, from a high of $68 mn in 1996 to just $40 mn in 1999 and 2000. By the end of 2000, the UN Population Fund reported, Côte d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe and Gambia had run out of condoms entirely. "We couldn't do very much," said Mr. Christian Saunders, a UNFPA expert. "There was donor fatigue."

HEALTH
Fight against African meningitis gets $70 mn boost

Efforts to combat meningitis in Africa got a major boost on 30 May when the US Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a ten-year, $70 mn grant to develop and distribute a vaccine for the disease. The grant will underwrite a joint programme of the World Health Organization and the non-governmental Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) to develop and distribute a vaccine for the Type A strain prevalent in Africa.

The absence of a commercial pharmaceutical market in Africa, said PATH President Chris Elias, has inhibited the development of a Type A vaccine. "Subsequently, there is little incentive for the private sector to make the investment needed to develop such a vaccine. This grant will provide the incentive that has been missing and may ultimately become a model for other vaccines or drugs tailor made for the poorest countries."

Meningitis takes an average of 10,000 lives a year in the African "meningitis belt" countries of Burkina Faso, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia and Niger. Infants and children are particularly at risk. During the last major African epidemic in 1996, more than 200,000 people contracted the disease, resulting in some 20,000 deaths.

With its recently announced $100 mn contribution to the Global AIDS and Health Fund, the Gates foundation since its launch has provided upwards of $700 mn in funding for health projects that entirely or largely benefit Africa.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
UN envoy to resolve crisis

In the wake of an attempted coup against the government of President Ange-Félix Patassé of the Central African Republic, on 5 June UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed the former president of Mali, General Amadou Toumani Touré, as his special envoy to try to resolve the conflict. General Touré met with President Patassé and appealed to all sides to end violence, permit humanitarian assistance to reach war victims and resume a political dialogue. Mr. Annan has condemned efforts to remove Mr. Patassé's elected government -- the latest crisis to erupt in the troubled country -- and urged political leaders to respect the country's democratic institutions.

CORRUPTION
Foreign companies charged in Lesotho

The Lesotho government has charged five UK and Canadian companies with bribery in connection with contracts awarded for construction of the multi-billion dollar Highlands water project. The companies are accused of paying bribes totalling some £3 mn to a senior manager of the project, a series of dams in the mountainous kingdom that will produce both water and hydroelectric power, primarily for customers in surrounding South Africa.

The Lesotho case is a rare African example of bribe-givers being prosecuted in addition to bribe-takers. "People are quick to point the finger at Africa," noted Lesotho Attorney General Fine Maema. "But if someone is taking the money, then someone [else] is paying it and they must be held accountable too. You can see from this case that it is not only Africa that is corrupt." If convicted, the companies would be banned from any additional contracts on the water project, which is funded partly by the World Bank and the European Union.

APPOINTMENTS Mr. Lennart Båge has been elected as the new president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The four-year term began on 22 February 2001. Mr. Båge, a Swedish national, has nearly 25 years of experience in international development, and long-standing and active involvement in the UN system and other multilateral institutions. Before his election, he served as head of the Department for International Development Cooperation in Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of budget and policy development. He also was responsible for EU affairs and international financial institutions. For the past 10 years, Mr. Båge also has served as chairman of the Governing Council of IFAD and co-chairman of the High-Level Special Committee on IFAD's Resource and Related Governance issues.

Material from this article may be freely reproduced, with attribution to
"Africa Recovery, United Nations".
We would appreciate a copy of the reproduction.

Africa Recovery
Room S-931
United Nations
New York, NY 10017 USA

Tel: (212) 963-6857
Fax: (212) 963-4556
Email: africa_recovery@un.org

Website: www.africarecovery.org
Contact us by email: africa_recovery@un.org