International community renews commitment to rural people

The 173 Member States of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)  on December 19, 2014 reaffirmed their shared commitment to the Fund’s mission by announcing a US$1.44 billion target of contributions directed at investing in rural people in developing countries.

The target of IFAD’s 10^th Replenishment will enable it to strengthen operations over a three-year period from 2016 to 2018. During this timeframe, IFAD’s plan is to expand its reach to up to 130 million rural people, which represents as much as a 31 per cent increase of those benefitting from its investments.

IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze said that the strong endorsement by Member States comes at a critical time, enabling the Fund to be a key contributor to achieving the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be adopted in September 2015.

“The decisions we make today have profound implications, determining not just the shape of our future food systems but the shape of societies for decades to come,” Nwanze said. “Often rural areas are invisible and neglected but this commitment by Member States shows their belief in the role that small farmers play in creating a world without hunger.”

More than three-quarters of the world’s poorest people live in the rural areas of developing countries and depend mainly on agriculture to earn a living. Among the proposed SDGs, the second goal recognizes the importance of smallholder farmers in achieving food security through a doubling of their agricultural productivity and income.

Beyond the core contributions pledged by Member States, and with their support, IFAD will continue to mobilize and leverage additional resources to meet the growing demand for its services. These include sovereign borrowing from Members and cofinancing agreements with national governments, international donors and the private sector, contributing to IFAD’s overall programme of loans and grants that amounts to $3 billion over three years.

“It is through partnership that we can ensure that no region is forgotten and no person marginalized,” Nwanze said. “It is our best hope of feeding every person on the planet.”

IFAD is the only United Nations agency and international financial institution exclusively devoted to investing in rural areas and harnessing the potential of small farmers and other rural people to contribute to sustainable development. By working with governments, civil society, the private sector, and other partners, IFAD increases investments that are transforming rural areas economically and socially. Every three years, Member States replenish the resources that the Fund provides as concessional loans and grants to developing countries.

Barrick to Suspend Operations at Zambia Copper Mine on New 20-percent Royalty

Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX,NYSE:ABX) announced Thursday morning that it will suspend operations at its Lumwana copper mine in Zambia. The move follows the Zambian government’s decision to jack up royalties on open-pit mining operations in the country from 6 percent to a whopping 20 percent.
While changes to Zambia’s taxation regime will eliminate corporate income tax, Barrick has pointed out that the new rules will also slap a 20-percent gross royalty on revenue “without any consideration of profitability.” To be sure, operating the Lumwana mine under the new tax rules would be difficult for Barrick.
“The introduction of this royalty has left us with no choice but to initiate the process of suspending operations at Lumwana. Despite the progress we have made to reduce costs and improve efficiency at the mine, the economics of an operation such as Lumwana cannot support a 20 percent gross royalty, particularly in the current copper price environment,” Co-President Kelvin Dushnisky said in a statement.
Andy Lloyd, VP communications at Barrick, said that the company has been engaging with the Zambian government in recent months to share its concerns about the newly adopted royalty regime and its impact on the mine.
In a research note from Dundee Capital Markets, Josh Wolfson states that to account for the changes, Dundee would have reduced its valuation for the mine from a NPV of $110 million down to “a $675MM liability, and the asset would have been uneconomic to operate.” Furthermore, other comments from the analyst suggest that Lumwana was not the best-performing asset to begin with.
“Barrick operated Lumwana for 13 quarters, of which we estimate the asset materially consumed capital and generated only modest levels of free cash flow in only two quarters,” Wolfson said.
The company expects to record an impairment charge of $1 billion related to Lumwana with its fourth-quarter results for this year. It will implement major workforce reductions at the mine in March, and aims to transition the mine to care and maintenance by the second quarter of 2015.
Barrick also noted that the mine supports roughly 4,000 direct jobs in Zambia’s North-Western Province, as well as various community projects in areas such as education and health care.
“We sincerely regret the impact this will have on our people, as well as the communities and the businesses that depend on Lumwana, and we remain hopeful that the government will consider an alternative solution that will allow the mine to continue operating,” said Barrick Co-President Jim Gowans.
Lumwana is a “marginal, but large copper operation,” according to Wolfson. It produced 138 million pounds of copper in the first nine months of 2014, and held 6.6 billion pounds of copper reserves as of December 21, 2013.-copperinvestingnews.com

‘I was infected with HIV at 3 months’

Rose Mbewe

DOREEN NAWA
BEFORE clocking 10 years, she had undergone her first major operation; a lumbar puncture in Ndola. The first lumbar puncture operation was at the age of eight in 2000. Another was done when she was 11 in 2003.
All operations were done successfully at University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka and Ndola Central Hospital.
In the same year, she was diagnosed with HIV. Today, Rose Mbewe stands tall and openly speaks about her journey after being infected with AIDS at the age of 3 months.
This happened after she lost her mother in 1991 and because there was no options on how her mother’s family would sustain her, Rose’s grandmother decided to ask for a favour from her sister-in-law to breastfeed her following the demise of her mother.
“I was infected at 3 months by my grandmother’s sister-in-law who breast-fed me after my mother died. She didn’t know she was HIV-positive,” Rose says.
And because of her failing immune system she has had three tuberculosis infections. One in 1999, 2001 and 2006.
When she started taking anti-retroviral drugs at the age of 11, Rose says she devoted herself to building a future where she could mentor many adolescents facing similar situations like hers.
Rose was born HIV-negative on February 24, 1992 in Lusaka’s Chaisa Township. When she was three months old, her mother died of heart failure. Her grandmother’s sister-in-law offered to continue breastfeeding her, oblivious of her HIV status. The culture of breast-feeding other people’s children then was very common.
“I will forever remain grateful to the gesture that my grandmother’s sister-in-law showed by accepting to breastfeed me because had it not been for her, I would not have been here to tell this story,” she says.
Narrating her ordeal, Rose says she has gone through rejection because of her openness regarding her status.
Two years ago, Rose was dumped by her first boyfriend after disclosing her HIV status.
“I did the honest thing by disclosing my status to my boyfriend. We had been in a relationship for two years and because we were advancing and talking about marriage, I decided to disclose my status to him”.
“After telling him, he decided that he should tell his relatives too so that they do not hear it from outsiders,” Rose says.
His relatives did not approve of the relationship and so he decided to end the relationship.
“That was one of the painful moments in my life. I felt life was not worth living but my inner self told me not to give up,” Rose says.
Rose, who is an only child, did her education at Chaisa Primary School and later, Kasamba Secondary. She then proceeded and did a short course in computer studies.
“My mother had eight miscarriages before she had me and this I am told affected her life and dad’s. My dad died when mum was five months pregnant with me. Issues surrounding my mother’s miscarriages contributed to his death as there was too much friction in the family,” Rose says.
As if that was not enough, on October 5, 2013, Rose lost her grandmother, the only close relative she had after the death of her biological parents.
Fortunately for her though, her grandmother made sure she was well taken care off even in her death by ensuring that she was the sole beneficiary of her estate.
“I manage my grandmother’s few houses that are on rent and that is what is keeping me going. I have not found a job yet and I wholly rely on the rentals I collect for my upkeep, so I am well-taken care off in that area,” she says.
Considering that 2014 World AIDS day theme is Zero stigma, Rose says stigma is contributing to the high number of adolescents dying of AIDS because of failure to access treatment.
Currently, HIV prevalence in Zambia has not decreased among adolescents aged 15-19 between 2007 and 2012.
The global AIDS death toll fell to 30 percent between 2005 and 2012 but increased by 50 percent among adolescents, says a recent UNICEF report.
Furthermore, the UNICEF report indicates that in Zambia 4,400 adolescents died of AIDS in 2013 alone.
Alarmingly, adolescent HIV prevalence is highly gendered, with teen girls showing infection rates that UNAIDS calls ‘unacceptably high.’
Adolescents become sexually active, try drugs and alcohol, feel invulnerable, and experience the social and economic pressures of becoming an adult. HIV and the lack of youth-friendly health services compound the problem, says the UNICEF report.
For Rose, one reason for this shocking teen death toll is the low number of adolescents on antiretroviral treatment (ART).
Rejection by family and society or fear of rejection, according to Rose, prevents adolescents from seeking help.
Teenagers’ adherence to ART is lower than adults, says Rose “for a range of reasons like treatment fatigue, depression, fear of stigma, denial and unstable family relationships.”
One recommendation that Rose would love to see to fruition is the delivering of information about child protection and sexual and reproductive health services to teens living with HIV so they can make safe life choices and access care and support.
Today, despite being HIV positive, Rose is a proud and confident young woman who remains committed to speaking up on ills affecting other young people in accessing HIV treatment in her community.

Mwembeshi ART centre opened

DOREEN NAWA
LUSAKA Province permanent secretary Wamunyina Muwana is concerned that people are shunning antiretroviral therapy (ART) due to lack of proper health facilities.
Mr Muwana said most people want to access ART services in secure facilities that provide a sense of confidentiality to them.
Mr Muwana was speaking during the official handover of Mwembeshi ART centre in Chilanga on Thursday.
The ART centre was built by the Association for Aid and Relief (AAR) of Japan at the cost of US$760,000.
AAR Japan is a non-governmental organisation with an objective to extend emergency and long-term support to people in need of help.
Mr Muwana said there are many challenges in providing ART, including long distances that people are forced to travel to access the services.
“The challenge is that not all health facilities are able to provide ART and this means that people living with HIV have to go to other facilities which in many cases are situated far from their homes,” Mr Muwana said.
He said infrastructure is a big challenge that Government is facing.
And Japanese ambassador to Zambia  Kiyoshi Koinuma said the Mwembeshi centre was built to ease the challenges that people face in accessing ART.
Mr Koinuma said failure to access ART services has adverse effects on individuals and communities.
He appealed to residents to jealously guard the infrastructure for them to derive maximum benefits from it.
And Chilanga medical office ART coordinator Godfrey Zulu said Mwembeshi Health centre provides services to over 12,000 people and that 2,500 clients are on ART.
Mr Zulu said the facility will ease people’s access to ART in Mwembeshi.

Renewable energy partnerhip critical for African farmers

AFRICAN civil society at the climate talks in Lima, Peru, has identified renewable energy as key to stop deforestation and reduce poverty on the continent.

They therefore support the proposed Global Renewable Energy Partnership put forward by the African Group of Negotiators (AGN).

The proposal falls in line with the UN Secretary-General's sustainable energy for all initiative, launched in 2011.

“Our people do produce food but there is no value addition in the last 100years, so what we now need is to introduce energy so that at the smallholder farm level our people can add value to the products they produce,” said Robert Chimambo of Zambia Climate change Network.

He believes access to renewable energy would be critical to enable smallholder farmers add value at the farm-level for higher income earnings.

Mr. Chimambo was speaking at a press conference organized by the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) to outline demands of African civil society at the COP20.

“What we need in the context of climate change is resources to roll out small hydropower, solar and other renewable energy to reach the lowest of our farmers and our communities,” he noted.

The over-reliance on biomass, especially charcoal and firewood, puts pressure on Africa' forest resources.

In an interview, Mr. Chimambo noted that each country would need to find out the cost-effective way of delivering energy to smallholder framers and energy-deficient communities.