Bob Geldof guest-edited Sunday’s edition of the Italian publication La Stampa. In the coming days we’ll be posting English language versions of the featured articles, including this one from Kofi Annan:
The financial meltdown has translated into a development crisis for Africa. This is revealing its vulnerability not only to economic contraction but also to climate change. Changing weather patterns are already affecting the lives of millions of Africans by reducing food security, facilitating the spread of diseases like malaria, and prompting mass migration. The livelihoods and lives of millions of people are at risk.
Ironically, this crisis also presents a unique opportunity for Africa. The urgency of efforts to address climate change is revealing interesting prospects on the mitigation side, particularly in the areas of renewable energy and low carbon growth.
There is a real possibility to steer countries toward a new development model that will not only benefit Africa but the world. In the meantime, adaptation to climate change is critical. For Africa this means ‘weather proofing’ development by increasing food yields, investing in climate-resilient crops and infrastructure, promoting rainwater harvesting, and expanding medical control measures in anticipation increased vector-borne diseases.
Africa needs additional resources, over and above existing ODA commitments, to adapt to climate change. Financing adaptation to climate will be a formidable challenge, particularly as it involves additional costs above traditional development assistance – when ODA budgets are under pressure. Estimates of the amounts needed by developing countries to help them adapt to these challenges vary between 50 and 100 billion USD per year.
This is why Prime Minister Brown’s proposal last week on creating a fund for climate change is so welcome.
Failing to act now will not increase costs in the future – both financial and humanitarian. We all stand to lose from a reversal of the economic and social progress made across Africa in the past decade. Burgeoning markets might disappear and investment opportunities evaporate, while the risk of political instability will increase. Every percentage fall in growth has direct social consequences whether on nutrition levels, infant mortality or school attendance. Every person pushed back into poverty is another step away from achieving the Millennium Development Goals. For all of these reasons, the continued engagement and support of all of Africa’s partners including the G8 counties is vital.
As this year’s DATA Report from the Africa advocacy group ONE underscores, (more…)
Former US president Jimmy Carter, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, and Graca Machel (the wife of Nelson Mandela), tried to enter Zimbabwe on November 22, but were refused visas. Instead, the three prominent international figures and representatives of the new group “The Elders” met with aid groups, refugees and civil society leaders in South Africa about the growing humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.
They emerged from these meetings saying the situation is deteriorating rapidly, and that the country ‘may soon implode as basic services collapse and cholera takes hold.’
As cited in this recent The First Post piece, “As many as 1.4m people are at risk of contracting cholera in Zimbabwe, according to Medicins Sans Frontieres. The World Health Organisation says that by late last week about 300 people had died in hospitals from the disease, with many more thought to have died at home and 6,000 others infected.”
As a response to the crisis, The Elders released lists of recommendations to world donors, to Zimbabwe’s political leaders, to Zimbabwe’s authorities, and to the Southern African Development Community (SADC). You can see the recommendations below, and is this pdf from their site.
-Virginia Simmons
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