What We’re Reading 10/6/09

Oct 6th, 2009 11:42 AM UTC
By Robyn Mitchell

Reuters: EU, Brazil pressure U.S. on Doha deadline
The European Union and Brazil are pressuring the United States today to set out its demands to conclude the Doha round of world trade talks in 2010 to boost dwindling world trade, a draft document showed. According to Reuters, who obtained a draft communique prepared for an EU-Brazil summit today, said a commitment by the world’s leading and developing economies to reach a deal next year “will be at risk” unless progress, such as the United States revealing its demands, is made soon.

CNN.com: Where have all the malaria patients gone? (Op-Ed, Tachi Yamada)
In an article for CNN’s Vital Signs medical blog, Tachi Yamada, President of the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses how the island of Zanzibar has virtually eliminated the disease over the past five years. Yamada emphasizes that Zanzibar acts as a perfect “example of how, with political will, advice on planning, funds to purchase sound, scientifically validated tools, and the courage to measure results objectively, development assistance can have an enormous impact on preventable diseases such as malaria in a short period of time.”

New York Times: Contention Over Rankings of African Nations
Two independent ratings of Africa’s best and worst-governed nations — one released Monday, the other last week — both put Mauritius at the top of the heap and Somalia at the bottom and reached often similar, though far from identical, conclusions about the 51 countries in between. According to the New York Times, the reason behind the two lists this year is the result of a riff between partners, Mo Ibrahim and Harvard political scientist, Robert Rotberg, who parted ways this year over “who should have the final say.”

Reuters: Nations vow well-funded World Bank but no deal yet
Global finance and development ministers on Monday promised to ensure that the World Bank had enough resources to fight poverty and other threats facing developing countries. According to Reuters, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s Development Committee backed a proposal by the Group of 20 development and emerging nations to shift voting power in the World Bank by at least 3 percent to developing countries to give them more say in the global institution. The proposal emphasized that it was important to “move towards equitable voting power in the World Bank over time.”

New York Times: In Rural Africa, a Fertile Market for Mobile Phones
In an area where electricity is scarce and Internet connections virtually nonexistent, the mobile phone has revolutionized scientists’ ability to track this crop disease and communicate the latest scientific advances to remote farmers. According to the New York Times, Africa has the fastest-growing mobile phone market worldwide. Jon Gossier, founder and president of Appfrica, a technology company with headquarters in Uganda remarked that “The penetration of the mobile phone is far greater than that of the Internet in Africa, especially in rural areas, making it the most accessible communication tool.”

Reuters: African farmers suffer hardship as climate worsens
Testifying at the first pan-African climate hearings yesterday, farmers said that floods and droughts expected to worsen with climate change have already brought poor harvests and have heightened the risk for women of contracting HIV/AIDS as a result of having to turn to prostitution to support their families. The farmers’ stories will be relayed at December’s climate talks in Copenhagen, where Western countries and poorer nations are expected to adopt new carbon emission targets to curb global warming. Besides AIDS, experts also fear an increase in diseases such as malaria and cholera if temperatures continue rise.

-Robyn Mitchell

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