Water quality and access are already huge roadblocks for communities throughout West Africa without competition from investors in the Global North.  This makes the ‘water grab’ trend even more detrimental to African health and life. The most coveted water resource in the region is the Niger River which runs through four countries: Mali, Niger, Guinea and Nigeria. The Niger River sustains the lives of 100 million West Africans through drinking water and irrigation for the temperamental farmlands in the region. In the past couple of years foreign investors have flooded the area buying farmland and taking precious water resources for irrigation, leaving local communities without land, but also dwindling water supplies from their greatest water resource.

An example of this environmental, social, and health problem is Mali’s Office du Niger. This department is responsible for land deals with Western countries and corporations. Land deals fueling the great ‘water grab’ jumped 60% from 2009 to 2010 according to research performed by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development.

Although there has been publicity and attention concerning the land contracts because of deals with corporations (Nestle) and countries (China and India), the repercussions of these land deals on local communities is absent from the discussion. It was only last week that the National Coordination of Farmer Organizations in Mali met for the International Peasants Conference to fight against the land grabs throughout the Niger River Valley.

Jamie Skinner and Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute for Environment and Development sum up the situation well: “Allocating water to irrigated agriculture potentially affects a much broader range of users”. As if the global north and former colonial powers haven’t taken enough resources from African countries, now they’re depleting water resources in African countries to irrigate African land for their own ambitions. Unless governments, local organizations throughout West Africa and citizens of the world use their collective resources to stop the land and water grab, the fate of over 100 million West Africans is at stake.

After the end of apartheid and the wholly democratic election of a new government in 1994, South Africa was hailed as a beacon for democracy. Its new constitution was even widely celebrated as one of the world’s most progressive. Since then it is safe to say the nation has struggled to deliver on the promises made by its leaders to alleviate the poverty in which millions of its citizens live. Despite these ongoing struggles, however, South Africans have fought vigorously for a more equal and free society and won many battles.

On Tuesday, unfortunately, they lost a crippling one.

With a vote of 229-107, the ANC majority in Parliament passed what’s come to be known as “The Secrecy Bill,” a controversial piece of legislation allowing the state to classify documents as secret in the interest of ‘national security.’ The bill also says that anyone in possession of these secret documents could face a jail sentence of up to 25 years. Even further, the bill doesn’t contain a public interest clause so journalists and whistleblowers have no defense for exposing government secrets, including corruption.

In a country hailed all over the world for its largely peaceful transition to democracy just 17 years ago, this is an unequivocal slap in the face to all who spent their lives fighting for equality and human rights for all South Africans.

Fortunately there is substantial civil and governmental opposition to the bill and this is definitely cause for hope that it will not be signed into law next year as currently planned. Mass protests were staged all over the country on Tuesday, which was deemed “Black Tuesday” by the South African news media and the opposition parties in Parliament are planning to petition the Constitutional Court to review the bill’s constitutionality.

Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Desmund Tutu summarized the collective feelings of South Africans describing the move by the ANC as “insulting to all South Africans to be asked to stomach legislation that could be used to outlaw whistle-blowing and investigative journalism… and that makes the state answerable only to the state.”

I would argue, however, that the bill is insulting not only to South Africans, but also to proponents of democracy everywhere; and it has to be stopped.

In a sharp contrast to my tone in last week’s post, this week I have to ask when in the world’s history have powerful countries stood idly by while a state completely collapsed upon itself? At what moment in time did it ever become acceptable for human beings to watch undisturbed as their fellow man lived in fear and anarchy due to circumstances beyond their control? When did mankind decide that was okay?

Well fortunately, I have the answer: in 1991 when the Somali government collapsed and the world effectively did nothing. Although numerous subsequent efforts have been made to form a new government and restore order in the country, these efforts have largely failed and 20 years later, many Somalis still live in a state of chaos and uncertainty, to put it lightly. What’s even more disturbing about this troubled reality is that major Western powers, namely the United States, with vast military resources at their disposal have provided extensive military and humanitarian aid and produced tangible, (hopefully) sustainable results in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, but little lasting progress has been made in Somalia. This doesn’t suggest that Somalia is a hopeless cause, but rather that our foreign policy has been governed entirely by politics and corporate interest (see Haliburton).

Unfortunately Somalis have suffered for 20 years as a result of this deliberate neglect. Fortunately the United States and its allies have a chance to make it right. With the AU’s recent announcement of a new effort to fight the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab, the US has an opportunity to increase its involvement in the fight for peace and stability in Somalia by providing military resources and even assistance to this international effort without having to be any more involved than is politically feasible.

While this kind of action won’t pressure the US to amend its foreign policy to a force for good rather than a force for re-election, it will at least offer a chance for lasting stability in a desperate situation. Perhaps once our leaders are more concerned with people than the electorate, when in the world this negligence becomes acceptable will be in the past, for good.

Over the last two weeks, as part of a program evaluation, I’ve been doing  something that sounds relatively simple: data entry. Our individual client records are kept in hard copy form only, and so in order to meaningfully look at how our program has impacted HIV transmission in Malawi, the first step has been to put the data into an electronic version. The steps involved seemed simple enough: 1) collect almost client registers from 50 sites throughout the country, 2) randomly sample tens of clients from each site’s register, 3) enter the data into the electronic database. The reality is that I now have a much deeper appreciation for this part of data management!

Step 1: collecting the documentation of the data. Because the client registers are used on a daily basis, it’s impossible to remove them from individual sites for a prolonged period of time. We asked locally-based staff to make photocopies and send them to our headquarters, which proved more challenging than I anticipated. We then dealt with the additional complication of illegible copies, not knowing which pages correspond with one another, and the list goes on! We started our project two weeks ahead of schedule, and it seems we’re now falling two weeks behind….

Step 2: random sampling. Well, this is a fairly complex process that computers have made super easy. Statistical calculations help to determine how many samples you need based on total clients and the level of “power” that you want. Software also helps to generate random numbers, which were necessary for the sampling. I won’t bore you with details but this was the easiest part of the process!

Step 3: enter the data. Now the fun begins! It seems straightforward: identify all 100 or so clients required for each site’s sample (using the random numbers) and plug their data into the database. But when you’re entering 30 pieces of information for hundreds of clients, it starts to become tedious! Then there’s the challenge of reading our data recorders’ handwriting, understanding conflicting information that’s documented, and – of course – making sense of the non-English comments that sometimes appear alongside a client. The other day, I spent more than an hour on the phone struggling to communicate with health workers at a few sites to get clarification on some of their data!

So after two weeks of data entry, my hands are hurting, I have a crick on one side of my neck, and I can say with full certainty that I won’t be sad when when this part of the process is over. When I was working on Masters thesis, I thought that the quantitative data analysis component was so difficult, trying to piece together two years and seven quantitative classes worth of information as I analyzed Demographic and Health Services data. But today, after two weeks (and counting) of attempting to enter data to the highest quality in hopes of improving our impact, I have a much deeper appreciation for data entry. I have enjoyed mentoring our assistant data entry clerk and being able to take ownership of this project from the very early stages, but I’m confident that data entry isn’t where I see myself in the future. The next time I read an article with the latest statistics on HIV or the hot health topic of the minute, and the next time I perform any type of statistical analysis, I will have a much greater appreciation for the work that went into just compiling meaningful data!

From the beginning we’ve been using micro-fundraising and peer-to-peer connections to raise funds. We always focused on supporting grassroots projects led by local, community members who wanted to increase access to basic health for their communities. We focused early on engaging young people and utilizing connections within a network in order to make change and replicate it. Many of the strategies that made our organization exciting, innovative, and successful have spread across the non-profit community. Now there isn’t an organization out there that skips a beat talking about peer-to-peer fundraising, network utilization, campus chapters, or the need for local control of international aid projects.

As times have changed and the needs of our members have evolved, we have been flexible and have grown our organization with those needs. This year marks our 10th anniversary of the start of an Eagle Scout project in 2001, led by a 14 year-old, that raised funds to purchase an ambulance for a health center in rural Uganda. Since the successful completion of that project in 2002, we have supported projects in 5 different countries with health issues ranging from access to medical supplies, nutritional needs, and HIV prevention. Check out our 10 year impact!

As our organization has evolved we have been uniquely able to adapt and implement various methodologies and theories of change. One that has been a cornerstone of our member training is a focus on “Allies in Development.” This training was developed from a range of resources to bring understandings of privilege and international development to our members. Being an ally means that our members recognize that there is a degree of detachment that comes from the privilege of activism on a campus to the health realities on the ground.

We are students and young people, but we can’t save lives. We CAN utilize our knowledge and resources to better support the work of projects and organizations that CAN implement community-based solutions.

That is why SCOUT BANANA is restructuring as a member-owned international development cooperative organization. There is no reason that a non-profit should collect your donations, but you have no participation beyond donating. Likewise, there is no reason that members and donors should be disconnected from the people implementing the funds they donate.

Our goal of engaging young people in meaningful international development efforts to improve access to basic health across Africa can best be accomplished with a strong network of invested individuals working within their campuses as Allies in Development and partnering with grassroots projects in need of resources and support. Become a member today and impact our work!

Learn more and Become a Member at: http://scoutbanana.org/activate

This week’s post is an entirely laudatory one, in praise of a new initiative in South Africa to foster agency, dialogue, and empowerment among the country’s astonishing amount of young people. Live SA is a new, free magazine published entirely for the youth, by the youth and released its first issue this month. The magazine will contain news, entertainment, and whatever else the publishers (who are all under 30) see fit, as informed by discussion and networking within the youth community, as well as commentary on important social issues still plaguing the diverse nation, particularly race and segregation.

Given South Africa’s high youth population coupled with high unemployment rates among young people, around 50% by some estimates, the country faces a potentially volatile situation if bold actions aren’t taken to address the increasingly marginalized youth. Challenging conventional notions of an apathetic youth and promoting engaging civil discussion is an absolutely necessary first step in that process; and Live SA aims to be a part of that step. The magazine’s website can be found here.

As mentioned, all of the staff members are under 30 and many of them come from very troubled and even crime-ridden pasts. This rich mixture of backgrounds and experiences combined with the energy and optimism that can often be attributed to young people provides the magazine with a unique opportunity to promote the cross-generational conversations that South Africans need to have.

I have very high hopes for the magazine and will be looking out for the impacts of its important work. Best of luck, Live SA!

The health world’s been buzzing about Uganda’s new budget cuts for health care, including doctor, nurse and community health worker salaries. According to an article addressing health care worker strikes and poor budget priorities in the country, expectant Ugandan mothers are being punished for the poor allocation of the country’s GDP. Community health advocates have said that mothers are going to hospitals, but are not being seen by nurses or doctors for their delivery. Sam Lyomoki, the Chairman of Social Services summed up the urgency of maternal and infant health in the country when he spoke at a meeting in parliament and said, “Since we have been here four mothers have died. As parliament we must…save those lives”.

In the big scheme of things this is just another example of the lack of attention, help and importance placed on women’s health in Uganda and abroad. The UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) continually reports on the successes, failures and progress of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals– eight goals aimed towards eradicating poverty throughout the world. One of the eight goals is maternal health, the one issue that continually falls short, with little to no progress since the goals were created more than a decade ago.

This problem in Uganda, which is just one of many instances of maternal health being deemed as unimportant, is not just about inadequate support for mothers, but it directly related to the overarching problems of gender inequality and globalization. The article gives an in-depth account of Uganda’s budget, explaining that funding for cars, allowances, and international travel have taken precedence over maternal health. The question remains: why have these expenditures taken predilection over maternal health? The answer may lie in the political and economic situation in Uganda.

Uganda’s main industry is agricultural, namely coffee, which is not an industry that generates a large amount of money for the country. In addition, Uganda continues to recover economically from the war that took place there in the 80’s. Because of this, Uganda relies on foreign investment in the petroleum industry and loans from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank. This financial ‘help’ is conditional in that institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank require borrowers to make certain policy changes which may not benefit actual citizens of the country. In addition these lenders require that money be spent in specific ways. Maternal health is not a revenue-generating issue.  Maternal health, as well as other human rights and health issues, end up taking a back seat to more lucrative issues.

Ironically, mothers and healthy births are essential to society and life. So, why are health and human issues pushed to the back-burner to make way for globalization and payment to the Global North? And, more importantly, why must women bear the brunt of these sacrifices?

Paul Farmer supports A Million Moms

(Paul Farmer talking about better health services for maternal and child health.)

Over the years, many programs have focused on the need for greater support and focus on women’s rights, maternal health, and the important role of mothers when it comes to healthy children, families, and populations. Not all programs have been implemented equally, some have been more condescending to women than supportive and others just were not enough to have a real impact. The focus on women seems to come and go like a fad – now prominent with The Girl Effect. Hopefully we see the focus on Moms and maternal health stick around with some strong research to support programs with a focus on family and population health.

Over the years this blog has also hosted a debate that we can’t throw other programs out of the window just because women focused programs are the fad. There is still a place for engaging men and arguably one that cannot be ignored. Men may not seem to have as much influence on family health, but men are the ones who often hold the decision-making power for the family or community. Therefore, to disengage men potentially jeopardizes the success of any program success targeting women.

Today was an hour-long tweetchat for #AMillionMoms - the A Million Moms Challenge part of ABC News’ Save a Life Program sponsored by The Gates Foundation

Calls for greater focus on women’s rights and access to health, better health systems to save the lives of those under 5 years, and fears over growing populations in African countries marked the week. As the G20 meets, many call for a stronger resolve for funding and focus on “development” efforts in the face of financial crises, while others call for cuts to foreign aid.

Bill Gates says mobile phones will save lives, help overpopulation

In his keynote address at the mHealth Summit, Bill Gates noted that, “The key thing, the most important fact that people should know and make sure other people know: As you save children under 5, that is the thing that reduces population growth. That sounds paradoxal. The fact is that within a decade of improving health outcomes, parents decide to have less children.” Gates hopes that there will one day be a international registry of births facilitated by the ubiquity of mobile phones. Along with recording births with mobile phones, Gates sees the potential for a vaccine database to ensure that all newborns are vaccinated thus increasing their chances to live past age 5.

What 7 Billion means for Africa

Issue Analyst, Brittany Griffin, answers the question of her post with a critique of Nicholas Kristof’s call for more access to contraceptives in African countries. She makes an effort to ask why some women in Africa have as many as 5-6 children, highlighting economic reasons as well as the impact of diseases. She nots that if we are to address population issues, then we need to address overall inequalities around the world.

Gauteng Records show Decline of Infant and Maternal Mortality

The Gauteng Province of South Africa reported that interventions implemented by the Department of Health and Social Development has yielded positive results with declining mortality rates for both mothers and infants. ”The reduction in maternal deaths indicates that the department is making encouraging progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals target of 100 deaths per 100 000 live births,” said the department’s MEC Ntombi Mekgwe.

Seven billion people, up from six billion in just 12 years. An absolutely astounding figure. The announcement of the birth of the seven billionth person on Earth was met this week with cautious celebration, however, given the stunning speed at which we arrived at this milestone and governments around the world were faced with a problem we can’t afford to ignore much longer. It’s an undeniable fact that the world cannot accommodate much more than than this for much longer at our present rate of resource consumption and environmental degradation. So the question becomes how do we slow down Mother Earth’s astounding population growth rate?

Well an obvious starting point is to look at areas of the world with the highest population growth rates and find solutions to reduce said rates, which is exactly what New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has done in his editorial this morning. Kristof cites high birth rates in countries such as Chad, the DRC, the Republic of the Congo, and Somalia as contributing substantially to the world’s high population growth rate and proposes more funding globally for contraceptives as the beginning of a solution. Although I absolutely agree with him that contraceptives should be freely available to women globally, I am hesitant to be optimistic on this solution’s potential.

For one, funding for this type of initiative would depend heavily on more developed, Western countries, like the United States. While these countries absolutely have the resources to finance such a ground-breaking initiative, it is unlikely to obtain enough support given the global economic problems they currently face, as well as the religious opposition to birth control and family planning in the United States. Secondly, before we begin to reduce population growth rates in less developed countries, especially in Africa, it is of critical importance that we examine why women are having upwards of five and six children in some areas. More often than not the children are needed for family support, especially in areas with economies heavily dependent on agriculture, or where diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria have destroyed families and communities.

Addressing issues of poverty, disease, and education in conjunction with providing free contraception to women in poorer countries is a much more holistic solution to a globally relevant problem. Governments all over the world should take the 7 billion mark as an opportunity to push policies that manage and reduce the very problems that got us here. That way we as a global society learn something from this unprecedented milestone; otherwise, it just means perpetuated inequality, poverty, and environmental degradation for Africa and the world.